Multifunctional TiO2/polyacrylonitrile nanofibers for high efficiency PM2.5 capture, UV filter, and anti-bacteria activity

In this work we present a multifunctional filter having polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers with embedded commercial P25 and/or TiO2 bead filler. The composite nanofibers were synthesized through a green method of electrospinning. The properties of the filters having single- and/or binary-filler composite fibers were investigated. It was found that TiO2 beads have higher electrostatic attraction to capture PM2.5 than P25. Binary-filler nanofiber filter having a higher beads/P25 ratio shows an excellent filtration efficiency of 96.75% with a low pressure drop of 88 Pa. As a result, a high quality factor of 0.039 has been obtained. This is 177% enhancement as compared to the PAN-only filter. Furthermore, the composite filters also exhibit antibacterial activity of 5.5 under 30 min UV irradiation, which is 9 times higher than that of the PAN-only filter. These results indicate that PAN-based composite filter with commercial P25 and/or TiO2 beads fillers is excellent material for making facial mask.