Abstract
The use of fine fiber has become an important design tool for filter media. Nanofibers-based filter media have some advantages such as lower energy consumption, longer filter life, high filtration capacity, easier maintenance, lower weight compared to other filter media. The nanofibers based filter media made up of fibers with diameters ranging from 100 to 1000 nm were conveniently produced by electrospinning technique. Typically filter media are produced with a layer of fine fibers that can be used lonely or as a component in a media structure. The fine fiber increases the efficiency of filtration by trapping small particles which increases the overall particulate filtration efficiency of the structure. Improved fine fiber structures have been developed in this study in which a controlled amount of fine fiber is placed on both sides of the media to result in an improvement in filter efficiency and a substantial improvement in lifetime. In this research, regenerated silk fibroin obtained from industrial silk wastes and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers was used to produce filter. Characteristics such as fibers diameter and its distribution, porosity and thickness of nanofiber filters obtained in lab were examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and analysed using image processing algorithms. Keywords: electrospinning, nanofilter, image processing, Fourier Transform, porosity