A mathematical model to predict the effect of electrospinning processing parameters on the morphological characteristic of nano-fibrous web and associated filtration efficiency

A robust simplified method was developed to study the effect of electrospinning processing parameters on the morphological properties of electrospun nano-fibrous web, its air permeability, and filtration efficiency against aerosol particles. The developed predictive model related the electrospinning processing parameters to the nano-fibrous web properties. The model was validated experimentally and then is used to study the effect of each electrospinning processing parameters (flow rate, electric field, concentration, and time of electrospinning) on the nano-fibrous web properties. For example, it is shown that only 20 min of electrospinning is able to reduce the air permeability by 66% while one hour of electrospinning coating time is able to increase the filtration efficiency to reach 100% for a range of aerosol particle diameters from 300 to 1000 nm. The validated systematic model is used for developing design charts that allow the determination of the desired air permeability and the filtration performance of the nano-fibrous web from the electrospinning parameters and vice versa within a wide range of feasible processing parameters and fiber diameters.