Low-Resistance Dual-Purpose Air Filter Releasing Negative Ions and Effectively Capturing PM2.5

The fatal danger of pollution due to particulate matter (PM) calls for both high-efficiency and low-resistance air purification materials, which also provide healthcare. This is however still a challenge. Herein, a low-resistance air filter capable of releasing negative ions (NIs) and efficiently capturing PM2.5 was prepared by electrospinning polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fibers doped with negative ions powder (NIPs). The air-resistance of fibrous membranes decreased from 9.5 to 6 Pa (decrease of 36%) on decreasing the average fiber diameter from 1.16 to 0.41 μm. Moreover, the lower rising rate of air-resistance with reduction in pore size, for fibrous membranes with thinner fiber diameter was verified. In addition, a single PVDF/NIPs fiber was provided with strong surface potentials, due to high fluorine electronegativity, and tested using atomic force microscopy. This strong surface potential resulted in higher releasing amounts of NIs (RANIs). Interestingly, reduction of fiber diameter favored the alleviation of the shielding effects on electric field around fibers and promoted the RANIs from 798 to 1711 ions cc-1. Moreover, by regulating the doping contents of NIPs, the RANIs increased from 1711 to 2818 ions cc-1. The resultant fibrous membranes showed low air resistance of 40.5 Pa. Field-tests conducted in Shanghai showed stable PM2.5 purification efficiency of 99.99% at high RANIs, in the event of haze.