It was found that electrostatic charging (EC) of finished and fluorochemical (FC) finished ePTFE resulted in slightly decreased FE to NaCl and DOP aerosols. However, the EC of laminates of ePTFE with spunbond (SB) polypropylene (PP) generally resulted in an increase in filtration efficiency (FE). With one laminate of SB PP/ePTFE/SB PP, EC resulted in a 7.3 fold decrease in penetration of 0.067 μm NaCl particles. This demonstrates that the of EC laminates of ePTFE and SB or melt blown (MB) PP fabrics promises to provide enhanced Warfighter protection with good breathability. Treatment of ePTFE film with one-atmosphere electrical plasma reduced the FE and EC treatment further reduced FE. Stationary EC treatment of ePTFE films alone was tried, as well, for different lengths of time; however, FE decreased notably with increasing EC treatment time.
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