Bicomponent core/sheath melt-blown fibers for air filtration with ultra-low resistance

With the escalating air pollution and frequent outbreaks of airborne diseases, there is a growing demand for personal protective filtration media. Melt-blown nonwovens have proven to be highly effective in capturing tiny particles, but their tightly packed fiber assemblages are more resistant to airflow and less comfortable to breathe. Here, we present a one-step melt-blown spinning process for the production of bicomponent core/sheath (BCS) crimped fibers and their application in high-efficiency, low-resistance air filtration. Fiber curl is caused by unbalanced internal stresses resulting from differences in the structure components, resulting in uneven shrinkage inside and outside the fibers. The resulting CM@S-2 filtration media features a uniform fiber curl and a porous fiber mesh structure, which reduces air filtration resistance. Under the same filtration conditions, the filtration efficiency of CM@S-2 (96.58%