Aerosol Filtration Performance of Solution Blown PA6 Webs with Bimodal Fiber Distribution

A bimodal web, where both nanofibers and microfibers are present and distributed randomly across the same web, can deliver high filter efficiency and low pressure drop at the same time since in such a web, filter efficiency is high thanks to small pores created by the presence of nanofibers and the interfiber space created by the presence of microfibers, which is large enough for air to flow through with little resistance. In this work, a bimodal polyamide 6 (PA6) filter web was fabricated via a modified solution blowing (m-SB) technique that produced nanofibers and microfibers simultaneously. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of the webs were used to analyze the fiber morphology. Additionally, air permeability, solidity, porosity, filtration performance, and tensile strength of the samples were measured. The bimodal filter web consisted of nanofibers and microfibers with average diameters of 81.5 +/- 127 nm and 1.6 +/- 0.458 mu m, respectively. Its filter efficiency, pressure drop at 95 L min-1, and tensile strength were 98.891%, 168 Pa, and 0.1 MPa, respectively. Its quality factor (QF) and tensile strength were 0.0268 Pa-1 and 0.1 MPa, respectively. When compared with commercially available filters, the bimodal web produced had superior filter performance, constituting a suitable alternative for air filter applications.