A Sustainable Recycling Alternative: Electrospun PET-Membranes for Air Nanofiltration

Abstract

Currently, the inappropriate disposal of plastic materials, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) wastes, is a major environmental problem since it can cause serious damage to the environment and contribute to the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms. To reduce this accumulation, PET-type bottles have been recycled, and also explored in other applications such as the development of membranes. Thus, this research aims to develop electrospun microfiber membranes from PET wastes and evaluate their use as an air filter media. The solution concentrations varied from 20 to 12% wt% of PET wastes, which caused a reduction of the average fiber diameter by 60% (from 3.25 µm to 1.27 µm). The electrospun filter membranes showed high mechanical resistance (4 MPa), adequate permeability (4.4 × 10^-8 m²), high porosity (96%), and provided a high collection efficiency (about 100%) and low-pressure drop (212 Pa, whose face velocity was 4.8 cm/s) for the removal of viable aerosol nanoparticles. It can include bacteria, fungi, and also viruses, mainly SARS-CoV-2 (about 100 nm). Therefore, the developed electrospun membranes can be applied as indoor air filters, where extremely clean air is needed (e.g., hospitals, clean zones of pharmaceutical and food industry, aircraft, among others).