Electrospun polyvinyl butyral/berberine membranes for antibacterial air filtration
Mei Qin, Daqing Liu, Xin Meng, Dai Zhang, Shufang Zhu, Na Wang, Xu Yan
Abstract
At the beginning of 2020, the whole world suffered from the new coronavirus (COVID-19). Wearing a mask was believed to reduce the spread of the virus. The core material of a mask required good air permeability and efficient filtration. Electrospun materials may match these requirements. By electrospinning, we prepared polyvinyl butyral (PVB)/berberine hydrochloride (BH) membranes onto the spunbonded nonwovens. The composite meshes showed porous structures, good air permeability (164 ± 16 mm/s) and air filtration efficiency 96.4% for PM 0.3, 100% for PM 2.5, with pressure drop (108 Pa). Moreover, with the addition of BH, the as-spun membranes showed good antibacterial property for staphylococcus aureus. Furthermore, the prepared PVB/berberine membranes had good hydrophobicity with water contact angle higher than 140°. These results indicated that the fabricated PVB/berberine membranes have potential applications in mask and air filtration.