Ultrathin, ultralight dual-scale fibrous networks with high-infrared transmittance for high-performance, comfortable and sustainable PM0.3 filter.

Highly permeable particulate matter (PM) can carry various bacteria, viruses and toxics and pose a serious threat to public health. Nevertheless, current respirators typically sacrifice their thickness and base weight for high-performance filtration, which inevitably causes wearing discomfort and significant consumption of raw materials. Here, we show a facile yet massive splitting eletrospinning strategy to prepare an ultrathin, ultralight and radiative cooling dual-scale fiber membrane with about 80% infrared transmittance for high-protective, comfortable and sustainable air filter. By tailoring antibacterial surfactant-triggered splitting of charged jets, the dual-scale fibrous filter consisting of continuous nanofibers (44 ± 12 nm) and submicron-fibers (159 ± 32 nm) is formed. It presents ultralow thickness (1.49 μm) and base weight (0.57 g m⁻²) but superior protective performances (about 99.95% PM_0.3 removal, durable antibacterial ability) and wearing comfort of low air resistance, high heat dissipation and moisture permeability. Moreover, the ultralight filter can save over 97% polymers than commercial N95 respirator, enabling itself to be sustainable and economical. This work paves the way for designing advanced and sustainable protective materials. Development of high-performance, comfortable and sustainable air filters is challenging. Here, authors design an ultrathin, ultralight dual scale fiber mat composed of true nanofibers and submicron-fibers to integrate the high protection, thermal wet comfort and save raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]