Patent ID: 8652229

Claim:
A filtration device comprising: a filtration medium including a plurality of nanofibers having diameters less than 1 micron formed into a fiber mat; and an electrically conductive rigid support attached to the filtration medium and having macroscopic openings for fluid flow therethrough, wherein the nanofibers are deposited in a not completely dry state onto the rigid support, and the filtration medium has a figure of merit FoM=−Log(Pt)/ΔP, where Pt is the fractional penetration of an aerosol particle diameter of 0.3 microns and ΔP is a filtration medium pressure drop across the filtration medium corresponding to a face velocity of 5.3 cm/s, and said figure of merit is equal to or greater than 14 kPa −1 and less than 98 kPa −1 .