Synthesis of silk fibroin fiber for indoor air particulate removal

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to synthesize silk fibroin fiber for indoor air particulate removal. Silk cocoons were de-gummed using 0.5 wt % Na 2CO 3 alkaline solutions at 90 °C for 60 mins, washed with distilled water, and dried at 80 °C for 3 hrs in a vacuum oven. Two sets of experiment were conducted to investigate the impacts of initial particulate matter (PM) concentration and that of air flow rate on the removal efficiency. Rice bran collected from a local rice mill in Ubonratchathani province was used as indoor air contaminant in this work. The morphology and physical properties of silk fibroin (SF) fiber were measured. The SEM revealed the deposition of PM on the used fiber. The PM removal efficiencies of 72.29 ± 3.03 % and 39.33 ± 1.99 % were obtained of PM 10 and PM 2.5, respectively, when using the initial PM concentration at 0.040 mg/m 3 and 0.020 mg/m 3 of PM 10 and PM 2.5, respectively, with the air flow rate of 5 L/min. © 2009 WASET.ORG.