Yu Zhang, Zan Zhu, Wei-Ning Wang, Sheng-Chieh Chen This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Department of Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA
Received:
December 8, 2022
Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.
Revised:
February 3, 2023
Accepted:
February 23, 2023
Download Citation:
||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.220445
Zhang, Y., Zhu, Z., Wang, W.N., Chen, S.C. (2023). A Novel Sustainable Semiconductor/Metal-organic Framework Coated Electret Filter for Simultaneous Removal of PM2.5 and VOCs. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.220445
Cite this article:
A MIL-125-NH2 metal-organic framework (MOF) coated electret filter, named E-MOFilter, was previously developed to simultaneously remove PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 mm in aerodynamic diameter) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs, e.g., toluene). This E-MOFilter captures toluene primarily through physical adsorption, however, degradation of the adsorbed VOCs is desired for increasing the service life of the filter. In this study, photocatalytic nanosheets Bi2WO6/BiOCl (p-BWO) were synthesized, grafted on the MIL-125-NH2 to be [email protected], and then coated to the electret filter to form a new filter named PE-MOFilter. The physical characterizations, including size, morphology, crystal structure, optical properties, and surface area for the semiconductor p-BWO nanosheets, [email protected] and PE-MOFilter were first examined to find out the optimal p-BWO to MIL ratio and coating wt% of [email protected] particles on the electret filter. Results demonstrated that the p-BWO nanosheets were successfully coated on the surface of MIL and the [email protected] retained the surface area and micropore volume of the MIL-125-NH2. The capability of the PE-MOFilter on adsorption and degradation of VOCs and the removal efficiency of PM2.5 was examined. The results showed that this novel PE-MOFilter not only captured but also effectively photodegraded VOC pollutants via the synergistic action of adsorption and photocatalytic oxidation (PCO). The photodegradation efficiency was found to be as high as 68.7% and it depended on the ratio of p-BWO to MIL. The PM2.5 removal efficiency also demonstrated that the coating of [email protected] particles had a negligible influence on the degradation of fiber charge. This research sheds light on the development of [email protected] coated electret media to simultaneously remove particulate and gaseous pollutants to improve indoor air quality with low energy consumption.HIGHLIGHTS
ABSTRACT
Keywords:
Indoor air quality, Metal-organic framework, Photocatalytic oxidation, PM2.5, VOC