Nanoparticle-enhanced bamboo-like tubular nanofibers for active capture of particulate matter

We proposed a thought of active capture of particles by improving the interaction force between fibers and particles. Nanoparticle-enhanced tubular nanofibers (Ag-SPNTs) were prepared by template-free cationic polymerization followed by surface modification. Ag-SPNTs have coarse surface and bamboo-like tubular structure with a diameter of approximately 80-150 nm. Ag nanoparticles were embedded on the nanofibers surface, and the content of Ag nanoparticles in the nanofibers could be tuned by changing the concentration of [Ag(NH ₃ ) ₂ ] ⁺ in the preparation process. f-d curve measured by AFM showed that increasing the content of Ag nanoparticles in the nanofibers resulted in the enhanced interaction force between the nanofiber surface and particles. Particle matter capture test showed that the number of captured microscaled/naonoscaled particles on the fiber surface increased obviously for the nanoparticle-enhanced tubular nanofibers (Ag-SPNTs) compared to the nanofibers without nanoparticle (SPNTs), probably due to the increased interaction force and adhesion energy between fiber surface and particles. Filtration property test showed that the Ag-SPNTs fiber films had a better filtration performance with a higher filter efficiency and QF value than that of SPNTs.