GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

Air purifiers are frequently employed to reduce indoor air pollutants; however, the effectiveness of these devices in decreasing airborne particulate matter (PM) remains underexplored. This study's aim was to assess the impact of an air purifier on PM reduction in a typical indoor home setting.

Methods: A commercially available air purifier equipped with a prefilter filtering PM and an activated carbon filter neutralizing gases was tested. PM number (0.3-10µm) and mass concentrations were monitored by CEM DT-9881 and DustTrak DRX monitors before and after 15 min air purification.

Results: The total particle number concentrations decreased from 152770 ± 8023179 /m³ to 7435.33 ± 2133.43 /m³. Total mean (±SD) PM mass concentrations decreased from 0.03033 ± 0.01864 mg/m³ to 0.01267 ± 0.01138 mg/m³. The most effective reduction was observed for particles of 0.3 µm sizes. A Student's t-test conducted on the mass concentrations (using VassarStats) demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the two samples (p = 0.02933).

Conclusion: The preliminary results demonstrate that air purifiers are effective at different levels for particles of different sizes in reducing their concentrations in a typical indoor setting.