Design and characterization of electrospun polyamide nanofiber media for air filtration applications.

Electrospun polyamide 6 (PA 6) and polyamide 6/6 (PA 6/6) nanofibers were produced in order to investigate their exptl. characteristics with the goal of obtaining filtration relevant fiber media. The exptl. design model of each PA nanofibers contained the following variables: polymer concn., ratio of solvents, nanofiber media collection time, tip-to-collector distance, and the deposition voltage. The av. diam. of the fibers, their morphol., basis wt., thickness, and resulting media solidity were investigated. Effects of each variable on the essential characteristics of PA 6/6 and PA 6 nanofiber media were studied. The comparative anal. of the obtained PA 6/6 and PA 6 nanofiber characteristics revealed that PA 6/6 had higher potential to be used in filtration applications. Based on the exptl. results, the graphical representation-response surfaces-for obtaining nanofiber media with the desirable fiber diam. and basis wt. characteristics were derived. Based on the modeling results the nanofiber filter media (mats) were fabricated. Filtration results revealed that nanofiber filter media electrospun from PA6/6 8% (w/vol) solns. with the smallest fiber diams. (62-66 nm) had the highest filtration efficiency (PA6/6_30 = 84.9-90.9%) and the highest quality factor (PA6/6_10 = 0.0486-0.0749 Pa-1). [on SciFinder(R)]