Development of electrospun filter with high efficiency to reduce disturbance on gas detection in dusty environments

In some harsh environments, certain gases are very important for the safety, such as methane gas from underground coal mines, which may explode causing catastrophic consequences. However, such gas detections are often disturbed by the particles. In this study, aiming at the scenario of underground coal mines, electrospun filters were developed and used as the pre-filter of electronic nose (PFEN) to mitigate the disturbance on gas detection in dusty environments. Two poly (e-caprolactone) (PCL) filters and four poly (e-caprolactone)/graphene oxide (PCL/GO) filters have been prepared and compared with two commercial filters. The results shows that all filters did not affect the response of sensors to the detecting gas as compared with that without filters. The PCL/GO filter at GO concentration of 0.03% (PCL/GO-3) had the best performance. The PCL/GO-3 filter exhibited high removal efficiency of particulate matter (PM) with 99.27% (PM1), 99.67% (PM2.5), and 99.90% (PM10), low pressure drop of 75 Pa, and highest quality factor of 0.076 as compared with other filters. In addition, the PCL/GO-3 filter exhibited higher tensile strength than those of other electrospun filters and commercial filters. These results indicate that the electrospun filters can be excellent option to be used as PFEN for mitigating PM deposition for gas detection in dusty environments.