Effective removal of particles down to 15 nm using scalable metal-organic framework-based nanofiber filters

Abstract Air pollution is currently a huge threat to human health, which leads to heavy demand for efficient air filters for filtration. Among which, ultrafine particles (UFPs, diameter less than 100 nm) can especially result in more severe health diseases. Here, a scalable metal-organic framework (MOF)-based nanofiber filter for high-efficiency particles ranged from 15 nm to 10 μm removal with facile and rapid one-step fabrication is originally presented. Note that the proposed strategy is only applicable for MOFs that do not require heating during synthesis. The MOF-filter has a high filtration efficiency of 99.1% for UFPs. For particle with size down to 15 nm, the filter also exhibits remarkable removal efficiency of 98.8%. The related particle removal mechanisms for the MOF composite filter were studied systematically. Furthermore, the durability and cleanability of MOF-filter were also validated. This work may shed light on the development of nanofibrous heterostructures for high-efficient nanoparticles removal, which hold great promise for reducing health risks.