Purification characteristics of golden pothos for emitting air-pollutants from plywood using a gas sensor

Abstract

Sick-house syndrome widely occurs in general domiciles. Its cause is from various types of chemical substances generated from building materials. The airtight structure is also one of the main causes for the syndrome. The most prevalent chemicals are formaldehyde, toluene and xylene. It is well known that plants have purification capabilities for these chemicals in an indoor environment. It is strongly desired to reduce the pollution level for multiple chemical sensitivity in domiciles and buildings. Foliage plants are very effective in reducing the pollution concentration. In this study, the purification characteristics of golden pothos for polluting chemicals emitting from a piece of building board are examined using a tin oxide gas sensor. The experiments are carried out in an airtight chamber of 200 liters. The number of plant pots were also changed from 0 to 3 in the experiments. As for the results, pothos had high purification capabilities for those chemicals and the capabilities increased as the number of pots were added. The purification rate reached almost 100% at over three pots in the chamber experiment. The approximate function of the purification characteristic is derived using an exponential function. The system can introduce the pollution level in an indoor environment using this expression. It is felt that this model can be effective in estimating the pollution level and the design of an indoor environment.