Degradation of selected indoor air pollutants: Comparison study of photocatalytic,ozone-assisted photocatalytic and amine adsorption processes

Indoor air pollutants impact human health, comfort and productivity. The method of photocatalysis has been applied mainly in flow reactors and little information is available on indoor air pollutant removal in airtight reactors. In the paper, experiments were carried out to remove formaldehyde (HCHO), ammonia (NH₃) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the airtight and ventilated chambers. Results demonstrated that 90.4% of HCHO, 92.3% of NH₃ and 57.9% of VOCs were removed in the amine adsorption process, while 67.5% (hereinbefore, these are the mass fraction) of HCHO, 60.0% of NH₃, and 61.2% of VOCs were removed in the photocatalytic process. However, ozone-assisted photocatalytic process showed great potential to degrade indoor air pollutants in the ventilated chamber. Factors and mechanisms of the photocatalytic degradation of HCHO, NH₃ and VOCs were also discussed.     

Electron spin resonance analyse on the production of hydroxyl radicals by ozone photolysis

AbstractIn order to explore the production of hydroxyl radical(·OH)in a confined space,a novel ozone-light irradiation system is constructed in this study,and the·OH radical is measured by spin-trapping electron spin resonance(ESR)method in which 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide(DMPO)is selected as the spin-trap.Several influence factors including the light intensity,the irradiation time and DMPO mass concentration are discussed. The results show that in this experimental system,with DMPO mass concentration of 1g/L and the irradiation time of 30 min,the·OH radical can be best captured.Besides,both wavelength and intensity of the irradiation light could effect the generation of·OH radical.These results are of great importance to further study the sterilization effect of·OH radical in confined space.