Production and analysis of electrospun pa 6,6 and pva nanofibrous surfaces for filtration

Abstract

Electrospun nanofibrous surfaces were produced by using two different polymers (PA 6,6 and PVA) at three different levels of polymer feeding rate (0.2, 0.6 and 1.0 ml/h, respectively) and three different levels of production time in electrospinning (5, 10 and 15 minutes, respectively) and the effect of polymer type, polymer feeding rate and production time was determined by analyzing unit weight and thickness of the nanofibrous membranes as well as fibre fineness and pore size distributions. The results showed that much finer fibres were produced by PA 6,6 polymer compare to PVA. The minimum average fibre fineness was 150.96 nm (by PA 6,6 polymer; 0.2 ml/h; 5 min.) while maximum fibre fineness was 243.43 nm (by PVA polymer; 0.6 ml/h; 15 min.). Similarly, the pore sizes of nanofibrous surfaces produced by PA 6,6 were smaller compare to the ones produced by PVA polymer. The results also indicated that coarser fibres were produced as the polymer feed rate and electrospinning time increased. In the second part of the work, composite structures were obtained by combining nanofibrous surfaces with PP non-woven material and their air permeability and filtration efficiency by using an aerosol having 0.2-0.33 mm diameter range were analyzed. The air permeability of PA 6,6 nanofibrous surfaces were much higher compare to the ones produced by PVA and quite high filtration efficiency (99.901 %) was obtained with PA 6,6 nanofibrous surfaces. Also, potential of these nanofibrous surfaces was evaluated by analysing chemical groups eliminated following their exposure to cigarette smoke which was chosen as a specific case study. © 2021 Inst. Nat. Cercetare-Dezvoltare Text. Pielarie. All rights reserved.