Directional Water Transport Janus Composite Nanofiber Membranes for Comfortable Bioprotection

Abstract

The Janus membrane has a huge prospect for personal comfortable protection. However, there still is a huge imbalance between the comfort and protection of the existing Janus membrane. There is an urgent need to further improve the comprehensive performance of the protective membrane to realize both protection and comfort. Herein, we report the Janus membrane with directional water transport capacity and dust rejection performance by compounding the polyvinyl chloride hydrophobic nanofiber membrane and polyamide-6 blended polyvinyl pyrrolidone hydrophilic nanofiber membrane. This Janus composite nanofiber membrane exhibited an excellent dust rejection efficiency of 99.99%, air permeability of 42.15 mm/s, which was 76 times that of the commercial waterproof and breathable PTFE membrane, water vapor transmission rate of 4.89 kg/(m² × 24 h), and accumulative one-way transport capacity of 888.7%. In addition, the breakthrough pressure of the Janus membrane in the reverse direction (i.e., hydrophilic layer to hydrophobic layer) was four times that in the positive direction (i.e., hydrophobic layer to hydrophilic layer), suggesting it to be a potential substrate for comfortable bioprotection with a comprehensive protection capability.