Nanoporous Atomically Thin Graphene Filters for Nanoscale Aerosols.

Filtering nanoparticulate aerosols from air streams is important for a wide range of personal protection equipment (PPE), including masks used for medical research, healthcare, law enforcement, first responders, and military applications. Conventional PPEs capable of filtering nanoparticles <300 nm are typically bulky and sacrifice breathability to maximize protection from exposure to harmful nanoparticulate aerosols including viruses ∼20-300 nm from air streams. Here, we show that nanopores introduced into centimeter-scale monolayer graphene supported on polycarbonate track-etched supports via a facile oxygen plasma etch can allow for filtration of aerosolized SiO nanoparticles of ∼5-20 nm from air steams while maintaining air permeance of ∼2.