Air purification effect of positively and negatively charged ions generated by discharge plasma at atmospheric pressure

In this paper, the air purification effect of positively and negatively charged ions generated by discharge plasma at atmospheric pressure is reported. We have developed a novel ion generation device which consists of a cylindrical glass tube and attached inner and outer mesh electrodes. With the application of AC voltage between the electrodes, positively charged ions and negatively charged ions have been generated at atmospheric pressure. The ion densities of 3.0 x 10(4)-7.0 x 10(4) counts/cm(3) have been obtained with the AC voltage of 1.8-2.3 kV (effective value). We have examined the air purification properties of this device. By the operation of this device, the initial oxygen nitride (NO) density of 10 ppm in 1 m(3) (in cigarette smoke) was decreased to 1 ppm after 30 train. The number of suspended germs in air has been significantly reduced by the use of this type of ion generation device.