Green Electrospun Nanofibers and Their Application in Air Filtration

Interventions and policies for tackling air pollution issues exist and have been proven to be effective. Membrane materials of nanofibrous morphology are attractive for air filtration, and further alleviate the environmental issues. Electrospinning as a simple and versatile way to fabricate ultrafine fibers has been attracting tremendous attention. Herein, the recent researches and future trends of green electrospinning are expounded from the aspects of green degradable materials, green solution electrospinning, and solvent-free electrospinning. The green degradable materials, including biomass materials, biosynthetic polymer materials, and chemical synthetic materials are reviewed. Following the concept of green electrospinning, electrospun polymer nanofibers via aqueous solution are discussed; additionally, further trends of solvent-free electrospinning including melt-electrospinning, anion-curing electrospinning, UV-curing electrospinning, thermo-curing electrospinning, and supercritical CO₂-assisted electrospinning are highlighted. Furthermore, the applications of these electrospun nanofibrous membranes in the field of air filtration are discussed. In the end, the challenges of green electrospinning and future prospects are summarized. The development of green electrospinning is reviewed with an emphasis on current advanced solvent-free research, where electrospun nanofibrous membranes are contributing to promising treatment strategies to solve environment issue.