There are so many carbon fabrics—how do you choose the right one?

Created on 10.16
Particulate matter and chemical gases are the two major categories of pollutants in the air. Particulate matter can be filtered out using separate air filtration materials, such as meltblown fabric, glass fiber fabric, PTFE, etc., and generally does not require composite materials. Chemical gases, however, require substances with strong adsorption capacity to be removed. Currently, the commonly used adsorbent materials mainly include: activated carbon, activated alumina, zeolite, molecular sieve, ion resin, etc. Among them, activated carbon composite fabric is made by combining activated carbon and nonwoven fabric through a specific production process—simply put, carbon particles are sandwiched between nonwoven filtration materials to make carbon fabric, which can adsorb pollutant gases such as benzene, formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide, sulfur-hydrogen compounds, ammonia, etc., and can also filter particulate matter in the air.
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The Carbon in Carbon Fabric
  1. Activated carbon composite fabric does not use traditional columnar granular carbon, but instead uses crushed small-particle carbon. Without increasing the carbon content, it increases the total surface area of the carbon particles, thereby greatly improving its filtration efficiency and adsorption capacity for chemical gases.
  2. Because the small-particle carbon is distributed relatively evenly in the nonwoven fabric, and the voids are sufficiently large, the air resistance of the activated carbon composite fabric is sufficiently low. Low air resistance means that when it is subsequently made into a finished filter, it consumes less energy when used at the same air volume as filters made from other materials.
  3. Easy to process and shape, with high strength.
  4. Long service life, but after prolonged use, it may develop a sour odor.
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Where Activated Carbon Composite Fabric Is Used
Activated carbon composite fabric is widely used in the following fields.
  1. Air purifiers, such as: household air purifier filters, car purifier filters, oil fume purifier filters, portable fresh air purifier filters, and industrial waste gas purifiers, etc.
  2. Air conditioning, such as: automotive air conditioning filter elements, household air conditioning filters, air conditioning system filter elements, air handling unit filters, etc. At present, ordinary household air conditioners rarely use carbon fabric, but automotive air conditioning filter elements use it relatively more.
  3. Vacuum cleaners, such as: dust industrial vacuum cleaner filters, industrial dust collector filters, mini household smart sweeping robot filters, car handheld vacuum cleaner filters, wet/dry vacuum cleaner filters, etc. The vacuum cleaner filters we see in daily life mostly do not yet use carbon fabric; at the current stage, it is sufficient to have a certain effect on particle filtration.
  4. Fresh air systems, such as: portable fresh air purifier filter elements, fresh air constant-temperature constant-oxygen air purifier filter elements, whole-house smart oxygen fresh air purifier filter elements, HVAC duct air purification system filter elements, fresh air anti-smog dehumidifier filter elements, etc. Whether carbon fabric filters are used in these occasions still depends on actual needs. In reality, a more common choice is a combination of particle filtration filters plus a separately installed filter element containing activated carbon granules.
  5. Clean filtration and purification systems, such as: Class 100/1,000/10,000/100,000 cleanroom purification system industrial air filter elements, ventilation duct filter elements.
  6. Other purification products and ventilation accessories, such as: medical respirator filter elements, anti-smog masks, projector/cinema machine filters, artificial intelligence robot filters, etc.
Whether Carbon Fabric Is Useful Still Depends on Performance Indicators
Activated carbon composite fabric can filter both gases and particulate matter. Therefore, it can be tested according to standards such as ISO 10121-1 and ISO 11155-2 for the gas filtration performance requirements of filter media and filters, as well as standards such as ISO 16890, ISO 29463, and ISO 11155-1 for the particulate matter filtration performance requirements of filter media and filters. Test indicators include: gas removal efficiency, contaminant capacity, desorption, resistance, particulate matter filtration efficiency (including gravimetric efficiency, fractional efficiency, etc.), air volume-resistance curve, dust holding capacity, etc. Which specific indicators need to be tested depends on the use of the activated carbon composite fabric.
Factors Affecting the Performance of Activated Carbon Composite Fabric
What mainly affects the performance of activated carbon composite fabric is the characteristics of the activated carbon.
According to the different forces between activated carbon molecules and pollutant molecules during the adsorption process, the adsorption mechanism of activated carbon can be divided into physical adsorption and chemical adsorption (also called active adsorption). During the adsorption process, when the force between activated carbon molecules and pollutant molecules is van der Waals force (or electrostatic attraction), it is called physical adsorption; when the force between activated carbon molecules and pollutant molecules is a chemical bond, it is called chemical adsorption. The adsorption capacity of activated carbon ranges from a dozen to several hundred milligrams per gram, depending on the physical and chemical properties of the activated carbon, such as surface area, pore size, pore volume, chemical functional groups, etc., as well as the molecular size and polarity of the gas. At the same time, adsorption conditions such as temperature and humidity cannot be ignored. Therefore, in actual use, multiple factors need to be comprehensively considered for evaluation, and then the appropriate activated carbon should be selected. Different types of gases are suitable for different adsorbents. As a gas adsorbent, activated carbon mainly relies on porous physical adsorption. Some manufacturers also impregnate the activated carbon, which adds chemical adsorption characteristics.
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