Generation of triboelectric charge in textile fibre mixtures, and their use as air filters

Performance of Electrically Augmented Fibrous Filters, Measured with Monodisperse Aerosols

“…has shown that these suffer an initial loss of charge over about 48 hours, after which the residual charges become much more stable. A similar effect is observed with permanently charged filter materials (Smith et al 1988). It is possible, therefore, that the residual charge observed in the current experiments is also relatively stable.…”

“…The current work is aimed at investigating the use of external electric fields with carded textile fiber filters in the capture of particles in the micrometer-size range. Filters of this sort have a limited efficiency for particle capture without the presence of an electric field (Lisowski et al 2000), but when such fibers carry a permanent electric charge the filtration efficiency can be considerable (Smith et al 1988).…”

Keratinous Materials as Novel Absorbent Systems for Toxic Pollutants

“…The triboelectric series is not as absolute as might be expected; factors such as moisture content of materials can influence it, and different series have been derived. The wool fiber is usually at the positive extreme, with polytetrafluoroethylene at the negative extreme 37,38 . It has been claimed that wool could be made to occupy any position in the triboelectric series, by corona and/ or chlorine treatment 39 , creation of sulphonate groups 40 or acylation on the surface of the wool 41 .…”

Electrically Charged Air Filters

“…A second type of material that develops its charge by triboelectric means is material made from a binary mixture of polymer fibers (9,10). If two yarns of dissimilar polymers are rubbed together, they will exchange charge in a consistent way so that one species will develop a positive charge and the other a negative.…”