Filtration performance of new reduced graphene oxide air filter material against bacteria in the atmosphere during the initial stage of heating

Abstract

With the large-scale outbreak of the COVID-19, people have gradually realized the importance of bioaerosols in the environment, and how to efficiently filter out microbial aerosols in the air, so as to create a safe and healthy air environment is urgent. The non-bacteriostatic F6 non-woven filter material and the synthesized new reduced graphene oxide air filter were tested and analyzed in this paper, and the filtration performance of the material against bacterial aerosols in the atmosphere at the initial stage of heating. The results showed that during the initial stage of heating, the particle size distributions of aerosols in the atmosphere during working days were stageⅠ(>7.0μm)4.34%, stageⅡ(4.7~7.0μm)4.62%, stageⅢ(3.3~4.7μm)13.30%, stageⅣ(2.1~3.3μm)21.11%, stageⅤ(1.1~2.1μm)38.70%, stageⅥ(0.65~1.1μm)17.92%. The particle size distributions of aerosols in the atmosphere on non-working days were stageⅠ(>7.0μm)4.52%, stageⅡ(4.7~7.0μm)13.66%, stageⅢ(3.3~4.7μm)23.04%, stageⅣ(2.1~3.3μm)31.82%, stageⅤ(1.1~2.1μm)15.18%, stageⅥ (0.65~1.1μm)11.78%. The new reduced graphene oxide filter material had a 10% increase in the filtration efficiency of the total bacterial aerosol compared with the ordinary non-woven filter material. Among them, the filtration efficiency of the respirable bacterial aerosol (particle size <4.7μm) was significantly improved by 40%. The results of this study could provide a certain reference for building a safe interior in the post-epidemic era, and also provided reference value for the research and development of functional air filters.

Keywords

• initial heating period
• filter material
• planktonic bacteria
• working day
• non-working day
• efficiency