Spiral grass inspired eco-friendly zein fibrous membrane for multi-efficient air purification

Air pollution, one of the severest threats to public health, may lead to cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses. In order to cope with the deteriorating air pollutant, there is an increasing demand for filters with high purification efficiency, but it's tough to strike a balance between efficiency and resistance. Fabricating an eco-friendly fibrous filter which can capture both PM2.5 and gaseous chemical hazards with high efficiency but under ultra-low resistance is a long-term challenge. Herein, inspired by the interesting ribbon shape of spiral grass, a green and robust 3D nonwoven membrane with controllable hierarchical structure made of self-curved zein nanofibers modified by zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) via bi-solvent electrospinning and fumigation welding method was fabricated. The obtained ZIF-8 modified zein membranes showed extraordinary overall performance with high PM2.5 removal efficiency (99.04 %) at a low stress drop (54.87 Pa), first-rate formaldehyde removal efficiency (98.8 %) and excellent photocatalytic antibacterial. In addition, the relatively weak mechanical properties of zein fibrous membranes have been improved via solvent fumigation welding of the joint zein fibers. This study provides a green and convenient insight to the manufacturing of environmentally-friendly zein fibrous membranes with high filtration efficiency, low air resistance and high formaldehyde removal for sustainable air remediation.