Electret Polyvinylidene Fluoride Nanofibers Hybridized by Polytetrafluoroethylene Nanoparticles for High-Efficiency Air Filtration.

Airborne particulate matter (PM) pollution has become a severe environmental concern calling for electret fibrous materials with high filtration efficiency and low pressure drop. However, restraining the dissipation of the electric charges in service to ensure the stabilized electrostatic force of the fibers for effectively adsorbing particles is extremely important and also challenging. Herein, we report novel electret nanofibrous membranes with numerous charges and desirable charge stability using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) as the matrix polymer and polytetrafluoroethylene nanoparticles (PTFE NPs) as an inspiring charge enhancer through the in situ charging technology of electrospinning. Benefiting from the employment of PTFE NPs and optimized injection energy, the fibrous membranes are endowed with elevated surface potentials from 0.42 to 3.63 kV and reduced decrement of charges from 75.4 to 17.5%, which contribute to the ameliorative stability of filtration efficiency. Significantly, an electret mechanism is proposed, while deepened depth of the energy level and incremental polarized dipole charges with increasing PTFE NP concentrations and injection energy have been confirmed through the measurement of open-circuit thermally stimulated discharge and surface potential decay. Ultimately, the resultant fibrous membrane exhibited a high filtration efficiency of 99.972%, a low pressure drop of 57 Pa, a satisfactory quality factor of 0.14 Pa(-1), and superior long-term service performance. The successful fabrication of such an intriguing material may provide a new approach for the design and development of electret materials for PM2.5 governance.