Durable and High-Efficiency Air Filtration by Superamphiphobic Silica Composite Aerogel

作者：Qiang Yu, Yuxin Mu, Pengfei Li, Wenjun Zhou, Jianwen Zhang, Jinchao Li, Y. Y. Wei, Shanlin Wang · 发表于：Colloids and Interfaces · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3390/colloids9030038 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Aerogels and thermal insulation、Aerosol Filtration and Electrostatic Precipitation、Odor and Emission Control Technologies

The escalating industrial emissions have dramatically increased airborne particulate matter (PM), particularly submicron particles (PM0.3), creating substantial health risks through respiratory system penetration. Current fiber-based filtration systems predominantly relying on electrostatic adsorption mechanisms suffer from critical limitations, including insufficient efficiency, potential secondary contamination, and performance degradation in humid environments. We develop a flexible silica composite aerogel to overcome these challenges with customizable and exceptional superamphiphobicity. This composite aerogel exhibits high porosity of ~95% and robust compression Young’s modulus that reaches ~220 kPa at 50% strain even after 1000 cycles. These features enable it to maintain a high filtration efficiency of ~98.52% for PM0.3, even after 50 cycles under traditional artificial simulation conditions. Significantly, a competitive filtration efficiency of ~97.9% is still performed in our composite aerogel at high humidity (water mist), high temperatures (50–250 °C), and corrosive solutions or atmospheres environments, revealing potential industrial applications. This work is expected to replace conventional air filtration materials and pave the way for various human protection and industrial production applications.