Negative ion generator without ozone?

[Gillo]

Hi friends,

I intend to make a negative ions generator to purify the air in my small working room. But it seems that ozone is often created as a by product during the negative ion generation process. My question is that how can I prevent ozone from being produced? I don't want that gas to spread throughout my room.

Thanks for reading my question.

Regards,

Gillo

 

[Boncuk]

I think there is no way around ozone when operating a negative ions generator. Taking care of ventilation of the HV-terminals the ozone (O2) will quickly convert to O.

Boncuk

 

[HarveyH42]

I think there is no way around ozone when operating a negative ions generator. Taking care of ventilation of the HV-terminals the ozone (O2) will quickly convert to O.

Boncuk

Ozone is O3, O2 is what is commonly found in the air (and most every where). Just a single Oxygen atom doesn't exist for long. Don't know much about Negative Ion generators, could be wrong, but have always associated Ozone with an electric arc. Could be your unit was designed that way, ozone kills bugs (bacteria), so might be intended to sterilize as well. Could also be a marketing ploy, you smell it, you believe its working to clean your air.

 

[Sceadwian]

For a home system I wouldn't even bother with an ion generator system, first of all it doesn't actually clean the air in the first place. I've seen some ionic filters but their general mode of operation is electrically charging dust particles which are attracted to an oppositely charged plate, it allows smaller dust particle to be captured. Simply injecting ionized air into a room will only increase the chances of the dust settling on a surface, which is just gonna get kicked up again anyways.

A few suggestions I can make for a work room air purifier is finding a cheap supplier of large activated carbon filters, there's still very few products on the market that can do much better than activated carbon. All you need then is a large fan or preferably a blower (blowers can handle back pressure better so they work well as filter fans) and filter grids as large as you feel you can make your filter cabinet, the larger the better because larger surface area will allow higher air flow. You'll want probably a course particle filter, like typical house heater filters for getting the big stuff, maybe a hepa filter cartridge if you can for fine particulates, and then the activated carbon filter last for odor and gas removal. If you're still set on an air ionizer put your grid as the first stage of the filter and put grounded plates on the other side of it, but again that only helps with particulates, the activated carbon filter is the one that will do all the 'real' work for smells smoke and what not. Depends on how involved you want to make the project.

 

[Boncuk]

If it's just cleaning air I'd go with CAMFIL. Keep the intake (and filter area as large as possible for least resistance).

Using the right set of filters you can even manage to get clean room conditions. (proved in a semiconductor production plant in France)

Boncuk

 

[tylervitale]

ozone, (O3) is a very unstable molecule. the most relaxed state that oxygen atoms can be in is in the configuration, O2. So ozone won't be around long anyways. if you are really adamant about it though, the only other way is to use the negative ion generator in a non-oxygen atmosphere, such as helium, or argon. however, If you are using it in a room as an air purifier, there really isn't a way to stop ozone from being generated. If you're worried about the health concern, don't. Ozone doesn't stay around for long due to it's instability anyway.

 

[Sceadwian]

Tyler, ozone has a half life in open air of 3 days... It's extremely reactive and can set off sensative individuals or those with Asthma, and can give normal people Asthma related symptoms. The reason this is generally not a problem is because most 'ionic air purifiers' barley put out a wisp of anything, it's mostly a marketing gimick, actually releasing a large amount of ionized air at least enough to benefit seriously as a purifying aid will produce an increased level of ozone. The best air filtration comes from straight up high quality filters, and a proper array of them.

 

[Sceadwian]

Hrrmm, I double checked that information, according to Wikipedia it has a lifespan of about a half an hour. But the reference in the Wiki entry sources no sources for this information, nor does the site that I found that says it will last three days, leaving a gapping whole in the truth, at least that which is established by data rather than hearsay.

According to what little I find, OSHA has a .1 PPM limit for ozone concentration in the air in a workplace, which is odd because the site that I found that said it lasts for three days said that there are no interior limitations set up in law, and sensative individuals will have problems at .01 PPM. This is absurdly low, and even at the half hour duration should not be allowed to be outputted by a device for a long period of time.

Again I'll say simply.. It's so much easier just to use good filters than try ionized air filtration as good filters are required regardless of weather or not ionized air is used as ionized air does not actually clean ANYTHING, it simply acts as a coagulant or reactant to. Modern filters are so good, I wouldn't even considering ionizing air generators, simply because there's no grounds for their use.