Abstract: A SiO₂-CuO composite fiber material was prepared by electrospinning combined with high temperature calcination with polyvinylpyrrolidone as a template under the condition of the molar ratios of anhydrous copper acetate (copper source) to tetraethyl orthosilicate of 1:10, 1:20, 1:40. The microstructure, air permeability and antibacterial property of the composite fiber material were studied. The results show that the SiO₂-CuO composite fiber material was successfully prepared by the electrospinning method combined with calcination at 600 ℃. CuO nanoparticles uniformly distributed in the SiO₂ fibers, which belonged to monoclinic crystal system. With increasing anhydrous copper acetate content, the crystallization degree of the CuO particles increased. The water vapor transmission of the composite fiber material was 2 994.4-4 017.6 g·m^-2·d^-1, which was about 60% of that under the condition of non-material covering, indicating that the composite fiber material had good air permeability. With increasing anhydrous copper acetate content, the antibacterial rate of composite fiber materials increased, indicating that the antibacterial property was improved. When the molar ratio of anhydrous copper acetate to tetraethyl orthosilicate was 1:10, the composite fiber material had good air permeability and a high antibacterial rate of 99.9%.