Nonwoven characteristics effective for blood-resistant particulate filtration for healthcare application

The epidemic virus such as COVID-19 can spread via bioaerosol or droplets, and the use of filtering facepiece is crucial in reducing the opportunity of infection. For healthcare application of filters, the fluid penetration resistance is an additional benefit. In this study, nonwoven characteristics that affect the blood penetration resistance were analyzed, using different coverweb materials including electrospun and spunbond webs. The web properties were varied in the basis weight, porosity, and wettability. The blood penetration resistance was tested using the horse blood and human blood simulant at the stream velocity of 2.83 m/s. The blood resistance was affected by both the surface wettability and the physical parameters. When the coverweb and the filter web were hydrophobized, filtration efficiency against oily aerosol was enhanced, without interfering comfort properties. This study is novel in that the comprehensive effects of physical and wetting properties were investigated in terms of fluid penetration resistance, comfort properties and filtration performance.