Fabrication and characterization of electrospun iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles for their application in barrier textiles

Air filtration techniques have been widely reported to remove the airborne particles present in the environment. Airborne particles include metal oxide particles which can cause severe damage to the human lungs. The present study aims to develop an air filter to remove metal oxide particles produced in industrial plants. Electrospinning is a technique renowned for producing polymer nanofibres at micro and nanoscale levels. In the present research, we fabricated electrospun nanofibres incorporated with Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) to attract metal oxide particles. PVDF and Fe3O4 MNPs with varying concentrations (7.5 wt%, 10 wt% and 12.5 wt%) were electrospun and sandwiched between polypropylene nonwoven sheets proposed to act as a barrier textile. Box Behnken's experimental design was approached with different parameters wherein 15 different combinations are produced. The prepared electrospun structures were subjected to various physical and structural characterizations. To magnetize the nanoparticles present in the filter an external magnetic field such as a permanent magnet was placed. The thickness, surface area, porosity, air permeability, and filtration efficiency were measured. The magnetic nanoparticle filter produced the highest efficiency of 99.996% (0.1 mu m to 1 mu m), whereas the 99.98% was at 0.3 mu m. This work suggests that the prepared magnetic nanoparticle filter works as a barrier textile to efficiently remove hazardous metal oxide particles.