Synergistic engineering of PEG-modified biomass-based polyester and forsythin for high-efficiency antibacterial air filtration nanofiber membranes

A biomass-derived poly (2,5-furan dicarboxylate propanediol-block-polyethylene glycol) (PTF-b-PEG) copolyester is synthesized through incorporating flexible polyethylene glycol (PEG) segments into the PTF polymer backbone and its basic properties are tested. Electrospun nanofiber membrane with PTF-b-PEG displays improved hydrophilicity, superior flexibility (elongation at break ∼287.35 %), but achieve only 86.6 % air filtration efficiency due to its large fiber diameters (1.71 μm). To address this limitation, forsythin (FT) is introduced to simultaneously modulate the fiber diameters and impart antibacterial properties. The FT-modified nanofiber membranes show narrower diameters according to the amount of FT (0.48 μm for FT 10 @PTF-b-PEG as an example) and excellent ultrafine particulate matter (PM) capture. The membrane can achieve an ultrafine particle filtration efficiency of 99.92 % at a pressure drop of 72 Pa, with a quality factor of 0.09 Pa −1 .The antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) are 98.68 % and 99.76 %, respectively. Consequently, the FT-modified PTF-b-PEG membrane was used for the bioaerosol filtration, which not only intercepted but also killed the bacterial at the same time, thus avoiding any secondary contamination to the environment. The results indicate that the FT-modified PTF-b-PEG nanofiber membrane is a promising candidate for high-performance and antibacterial air purification.