Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering (CEG), Guindy Campus, Anna University, Chennai, 600 025, India.
Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Jul;28(28):37520-37533. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13202-3. Epub 2021 Mar 13.
Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) blended with varying concentrations of titanium nanotubes (TNT) was electrospun to result in a nanocomposite filter media. Sandwich structures were obtained by depositing the electrospun fibers between polypropylene (PP) nonwoven sheets. The synthesized tubular TNT was confirmed for its morphology through a transmission electron microscope (TEM). The prepared filter media was analyzed through a scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The effectiveness of the filter media was evaluated through the zone of inhibition and antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus. The Box-Behnken design is experimented with three-level variables, namely areal density of substrate (GSM), electrospinning time (hours), and concentration of TNT (wt%) for investigating the bacterial filtration efficiency through an Andersen sampler. Among other statistical tests (STATs), PVDF + 15 wt% TNT has a bacterial filtration efficiency of 99.88% providing greater potentials upon application for clean air management. It can be noted that the future application of this formulation could be efficient filtration of other microbes and could be used in facemasks to industrial-scale air filters. Graphical abstract.
聚偏二氟乙烯（PVDF）与不同浓度的钛纳米管（TNT）共混，通过静电纺丝得到纳米复合过滤介质。将电纺纤维沉积在聚丙烯（PP）无纺片之间获得三明治结构。通过透射电子显微镜（TEM）对合成的管状 TNT 的形态进行了确认。通过扫描电子显微镜（SEM）、X 射线衍射（XRD）、傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）和热重分析（TGA）对制备的过滤介质进行了分析。通过抑菌区和对大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌的抗菌活性评估了过滤介质的有效性。采用三水平变量（即基底的面密度（GSM）、静电纺丝时间（小时）和 TNT 浓度（wt%））进行 Box-Behnken 设计实验，通过安德森采样器研究细菌过滤效率。在其他统计测试（STATs）中，PVDF+15wt%TNT 的细菌过滤效率为 99.88%，在清洁空气管理方面具有更大的应用潜力。值得注意的是，这种配方的未来应用可能是对其他微生物的有效过滤，并可用于面罩和工业规模的空气过滤器。
