Investigation on the mechanical properties of composite fiber membranes with different concentration of EVOH/Ag/AC

There are several requirements of properties for filter material: adsorption, antibacterial property, air permeability, mechanical properties, etc. Electrospinning technology is a recognized method with great potential to fabricate nanofiber membrane. In particular, the mechanical properties need to be well understood for applications where the membrane is subjected external loading, e.g. tension forces which could be monotonic or cyclic. In this study, the mechanical properties of ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH) nanofiber membranes loaded with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and activated carbon (AC) were investigated in detail. Static load tensile tests were carried out for nine groups of membranes with different mass fraction of EVOH (7.5%, 10%, 12.5%) and concentration ratios of Ag/AC (2:5, 1:1, 5:2). The results showed that the tensile strength and Young's modulus of this membrane would increase with the increase of EVOH mass fraction. When the mass fraction of EVOH is 7.5% and the concentration ratio of Ag/AC is 1:1, the fracture strength of nanofiber membrane was the highest, which was 0.1545 MPa.