Electrospinning of poly (ether sulfone) and evaluation of the filtration efficiency

Abstract

To produce high heat-resistant air filter, filtration properties of poly (ether sulfone) (PES) made by various electrospinning conditions were evaluated. The PES webs of 0.4-1.1 mu m average diameter fiber were obtained from 35-40 wt% PES / N,N- Dimethylacetamide (DMAc) solution. The diameter profile of electrospun PES web was clearly affected by PES concentration of the spinning dope and feeding rate of the dope, while the take-up speed effects little. The needle-collector distance affects the diameter profile for higher feeding rate conditions. The pore size of these webs was 1.3-5.6 mu m, which was decided not only average fiber diameter but also fiber diameter variation. Both filtration efficiency and pressure loss were dropped steeply at about 3.0 mu m of pore size. For the web having a pore size of 3.2 mu m, the pressure loss decrease to 215 Pa, while the filtration efficiency for 0.3 mu m particle kept 99.9998 %, which satisfied the HEPA requirement.