Technology Project: Xingyao Li

Summary

The ongoing processes of industrialisation and urbanisation continue to aggravate air pollution, pollutant particulate matters in atmosphere can cause serious harm to people's health. Currently, most of the protective bacteria-filtering materials on the market are polypropylene meltblown fabrics. However, the electric effect has a shelf life of only about 3 months as it tends to disappear over time and is greatly affected by humidity. A major research trend involves the use of electronspun nanofiber membranes as a more effective particle filter. But it is hard to balance the high air filtering efficiency and low pressure drop of membranes. Collecting and recycling the solvents remains a major environmental challenge. Therefore, based on the nanofibre membrane with better performance, this project aims to explore the current status and prospect applications of electrospinning in air filtration. It will also provide suggestions of recyclable and degradable materials to achieve sustainable and ethical objectives, as well as high value-added commercial products with multiple functions.