Aerosol Formation and Control in UV Air Treatment

紫外线(UV)越来越多地被用于处理住宅、商业和医疗设施中的空气，用于消毒、去除挥发性有机化合物(VOC)和气味控制目的。虽然这些都是有益的目的，但存在这样一种可能性，即紫外线处理也会产生被称为次级有机气溶胶的细颗粒。这些颗粒物对室内和室外空气质量的影响越来越令人担忧，因为有证据表明，它们与对呼吸和心脏健康的负面影响有关。因此，我们需要研究它们是如何在紫外线处理过程中形成的，这是一个以前没有讨论过的课题。 随着对颗粒浓度和形成机制的更好的了解，我们可以研究将形成降至最低的技术，或者在治疗过程中去除气溶胶。这项工作的结果将导致改善使用紫外线空气处理的建筑物的室内空气质量，以及改进紫外线设备设计，供加拿大制造商实施。

Ultraviolet (UV) light is increasingly being used to treat the air in residential, commercial, and medical facilities for disinfection, volatile organic compound (VOC) removal, and odour control purposes. While these are beneficial purposes, the possibility exists that UV treatment also creates fine particles called secondary organic aerosols. The impact of these particles on indoor and outdoor air quality is of increasing concern because of evidence linking them with negative respiratory and cardiac health effects. Therefore we need to study how they may be formed during UV treatment, and this is a topic that has not been previously addressed. With an improved understanding of particle concentrations and formation mechanisms, we can then investigate techniques for minimizing the formation, or removing the aerosols during treatment. The results of this work will lead toward improved indoor air quality in buildings where UV air treatment is used, as well as improved UV device design for Canadian manufacturers to implement.