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Efficient, Breathable, and Compostable Multilayer Air Filter Material Prepared from Plant-Derived Biopolymers

State-of-art face masks and respirators are fabricated as single-use devices using microfibrous polypropylene fabrics, which are challenging to be collected and recycled at a community scale. Compostable face masks and respirators can offer a viable alternative to reducing their environmental impact...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wu, Rong, Shanbhag, Sneha, Selvaganapathy, P. Ravi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10146039/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37103807
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes13040380
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author Wu, Rong
Shanbhag, Sneha
Selvaganapathy, P. Ravi
author_facet Wu, Rong
Shanbhag, Sneha
Selvaganapathy, P. Ravi
author_sort Wu, Rong
collection PubMed
description State-of-art face masks and respirators are fabricated as single-use devices using microfibrous polypropylene fabrics, which are challenging to be collected and recycled at a community scale. Compostable face masks and respirators can offer a viable alternative to reducing their environmental impact. In this work, we have developed a compostable air filter produced by electrospinning a plant-derived protein, zein, on a craft paper-based substrate. The electrospun material is tailored to be humidity tolerant and mechanically durable by crosslinking zein with citric acid. The electrospun material demonstrated a high particle filtration efficiency (PFE) of 91.15% and a high pressure drop (PD) of 191.2 Pa using an aerosol particle diameter of 75 ± 2 nm at a face velocity of 10 cm/s. We deployed a pleated structure to reduce the PD or improve the breathability of the electrospun material without compromising the PFE over short- and long-duration tests. Over a 1 h salt loading test, the PD of a single-layer pleated filter increased from 28.9 to 39.1 Pa, while that of the flat sample increased from 169.3 to 327 Pa. The stacking of pleated layers enhanced the PFE while retaining a low PD; a two-layer stack with a pleat width of 5 mm offers a PFE of 95.4 ± 0.34% and a low PD of 75.2 ± 6.1 Pa.
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spelling pubmed-101460392023-04-29 Efficient, Breathable, and Compostable Multilayer Air Filter Material Prepared from Plant-Derived Biopolymers Wu, Rong Shanbhag, Sneha Selvaganapathy, P. Ravi Membranes (Basel) Article State-of-art face masks and respirators are fabricated as single-use devices using microfibrous polypropylene fabrics, which are challenging to be collected and recycled at a community scale. Compostable face masks and respirators can offer a viable alternative to reducing their environmental impact. In this work, we have developed a compostable air filter produced by electrospinning a plant-derived protein, zein, on a craft paper-based substrate. The electrospun material is tailored to be humidity tolerant and mechanically durable by crosslinking zein with citric acid. The electrospun material demonstrated a high particle filtration efficiency (PFE) of 91.15% and a high pressure drop (PD) of 191.2 Pa using an aerosol particle diameter of 75 ± 2 nm at a face velocity of 10 cm/s. We deployed a pleated structure to reduce the PD or improve the breathability of the electrospun material without compromising the PFE over short- and long-duration tests. Over a 1 h salt loading test, the PD of a single-layer pleated filter increased from 28.9 to 39.1 Pa, while that of the flat sample increased from 169.3 to 327 Pa. The stacking of pleated layers enhanced the PFE while retaining a low PD; a two-layer stack with a pleat width of 5 mm offers a PFE of 95.4 ± 0.34% and a low PD of 75.2 ± 6.1 Pa. MDPI 2023-03-27 /pmc/articles/PMC10146039/ /pubmed/37103807 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes13040380 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wu, Rong
Shanbhag, Sneha
Selvaganapathy, P. Ravi
Efficient, Breathable, and Compostable Multilayer Air Filter Material Prepared from Plant-Derived Biopolymers
title Efficient, Breathable, and Compostable Multilayer Air Filter Material Prepared from Plant-Derived Biopolymers
title_full Efficient, Breathable, and Compostable Multilayer Air Filter Material Prepared from Plant-Derived Biopolymers
title_fullStr Efficient, Breathable, and Compostable Multilayer Air Filter Material Prepared from Plant-Derived Biopolymers
title_full_unstemmed Efficient, Breathable, and Compostable Multilayer Air Filter Material Prepared from Plant-Derived Biopolymers
title_short Efficient, Breathable, and Compostable Multilayer Air Filter Material Prepared from Plant-Derived Biopolymers
title_sort efficient, breathable, and compostable multilayer air filter material prepared from plant-derived biopolymers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10146039/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37103807
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes13040380
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