Patent 9802187 was granted and assigned to 3M on October, 2017 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A non-woven electret fibrous web for electrostatic adsorption and odor elimination and the preparation process thereof. In certain exemplary embodiments, the non-woven electret fibrous web includes a multiplicity of electret fibers, at least one of a plurality of photo-catalytic fibers or a plurality of multi-component fibers; and optionally, at least one of a plurality of chemically-active particulates, a plurality of carbon-based fibers, or a plurality of mono-component thermoplastic fibers. In other exemplary embodiments, carding and cross-lapping or air-laying processes are disclosed for making nonwoven fibrous webs including electret fibers and one or more of photocatalytic fibers, chemically-active particulates, multi-component fibers, mono-component thermoplastic fibers, or carbon-based fibers. In some exemplary embodiments, exemplary non-woven electret fibrous webs of the disclosure exhibit superior gas permeation characteristics, high adsorption characteristics for airborne contaminants, as well as an odor elimination function.