Development of Polydiacetylene Embedded Polyurethane Nanocomposites as a Mask for Sensing and Filtering Fine Dust

• Published in: Fibers and polymers 2021, 22(2), , pp.489-497
• Main Authors: Kim, Jeong Hwa, Lee, Jung-Soon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerosols; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Colorimetry; Composite materials; Dust; Dust filters; Low pressure; Mass ratios; Nanocomposites; Nanofibers; Paraffins; Particle size; Polydiacetylenes; Polymer matrix composites; Polymer Sciences; Polyurethane resins; Pressure drop; Sodium chloride; Substrates; Ultraviolet radiation; Visual observation; 섬유공학
• ISSN: 1229-9197; 1875-0052
• DOI: 10.1007/s12221-021-0187-7

The importance of fine dust has been recognized around the world, and research has been conducted on various regulatory devices and protection devices. In this study, we prepared PU/PDA(polyurethane/polydiacetylene) nanofiber composite materials using 10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid (PCDA) and polyurethane (PU), which have color transition phenomena, to develop mask materials that can detect and block fine dust. PCDA was mixed with polyurethane as the supporting polymer, and the solution was electrospun to produce nanofiber composites on a polypropylene spunbond nonwoven substrate. Then, the nanocomposites were photopolymerized using UV irradiation to produce PU/PDA nanofiber composites with the diameters of the fibers ranging from 129–254 nm at various mass ratios of PU to PCDA. As the mass ratios increased from 4:1 to 6:1, the diameters of the nanofibers also increased. By using the PP spunbond nonwoven material, the PU/PDA fibrous membranes (basis weight: 3 g/m 2 ) had tensile strengths approaching 3.0–3.5 kgf/cm 2 . The asprepared nanocomposites with comparable air permeability (112 mm/s) had surprisingly high filtration efficiencies (97.8–99.6 %) and low pressure drops (56.9–61.78 Pa) for sodium chloride aerosol particles in the range of 400–600 nm and paraffin aerosol particles with an average particle diameter of 400 nm. The colorimetric response was more sensitive in the nanofibers made with a high mass ratio of PU to PCDA, i.e., up to 80 µg/m 3 of fine dust. A clear visual color transition was observed when the concentration of the fine dust was 100 µg/m 3 . It was confirmed that the visual color transition appeared clearly enough to be distinguished easily by the naked eye, even in the nanofibers with lower contents of PDA.