JP2002058731A - Air cleaner and air conditioner with ion generator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an air cleaner which can quickly remove floating bacterial in air by generation of a sufficient amount of negative and positive ions sent into a room. SOLUTION: Inner and outer electrodes 22 and 23 comprising a stainless mesh with the number of meshes of 30 to 60 are arranged facing each other sandwiching a cylindrical glass tube 21 and an AC voltage is applied between the electrodes 22 and 23 to generate positive and negative ions. The ion generator 11 thus obtained is installed on the upstream side of an air blowoff port 17 of an air cleaner. The air cleaner is started while the ion generator 11 is operated by applying the AC voltage of 1.1 to 1.4 kV (effective value) with 15 kHz between the electrodes 22 and 23. This allows the spreading of active species having a bacteria removing effect, produced by the chemical reaction of the positive and negative ions generated from the ion generator 11, thoroughly into a space.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an air cleaner and an air conditioner provided with an ion generator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as the living environment has become more airtight, there has been an increasing demand for removing harmful airborne bacteria in the air and living a healthy and comfortable life. To meet this demand, air purifiers equipped with various filters have been proposed.

[0003]

However, in such an air purifier, since the air in the room is sucked and the contaminants are disassembled or removed, the filter is replaced for a long time. Maintenance is indispensable, and the characteristics of the filter are not sufficient, so that satisfactory performance has not been obtained.

On the other hand, air purifiers and air conditioners that increase the ion concentration in the air by using an ion generator have been developed, but those currently on the market generate only negative ions. Thus, although the effect of relaxing humans by negative ions can be expected to some extent, little effect has been recognized on the active removal of airborne bacteria in the air.

Further, such a conventional ion generator generates negative ions from a discharge needle using an AC voltage method or a pulsed high voltage method, and thus requires a high voltage of 5 kV or more. Therefore, there is a problem that dust adheres to products and peripheral devices. In addition, there is a problem in the safety of the equipment due to the use of a high voltage, and measures such as installing a safety circuit are required.

In view of such a problem, the present inventors have made intensive studies and as a result, have recently developed an ion generator that generates both negative ions and positive ions at the same time, and installed it in an air purifier or the like. Then, it was confirmed that by sending the negative ions and the positive ions to the space, the suspended bacteria in the air can be efficiently removed.

The principle of this ion generator will be described. When an AC voltage is applied between electrodes facing each other with an insulator interposed therebetween, ionization phenomena such as discharge occur in the atmosphere.
Positive ions and negative ions are generated simultaneously.

At this time, the generated positive ions are H
⁺(H_TwoO)_n, And O as a negative ion_Two ^-(H_TwoO)_nIs the most
Generates stably. These ions can be positive or negative ions.
ON alone has exceptional sterilization effectiveness against airborne bacteria.
There is no result. But these ions occur simultaneously
And hydrogen peroxide H which is an active species by a chemical reaction_TwoO_Twoor
Produces hydroxyl radicals / OH. This H_TwoO_TwoOr
Since OH exhibits extremely strong activity,
By sending out, airborne bacteria in the air can be removed.

Further, since these active species have an extremely strong oxidizing power enough to corrode even a metal, selection of an electrode material is an important problem. It was inevitable.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an air purifier and an air conditioner equipped with an ion generator capable of generating sufficient positive ions and negative ions and having no fear of deterioration of the electrodes due to the generated active species. Aim.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is directed to a first electrode and a second electrode facing each other with an insulator interposed therebetween.
In an air purifier provided with an ion generator for simultaneously generating positive ions and negative ions by applying an AC voltage between the electrodes, a conductive oxidation-resistant material is applied to the first electrode and the second electrode. Is used. According to this, there is no fear of electrode deterioration due to corrosion.

As such an oxidation resistant material, a stainless steel mesh which is inexpensive and easily available is suitable. Also,
The number of openings of the stainless mesh is 30 to 60 me.
By setting it in the range of sh, it is possible to generate a sufficient amount of positive ions and negative ions having a sterilizing effect while suppressing generation of unpleasant odor and toxic ozone.

When an activated carbon filter carrying an ozone decomposition catalyst is provided downstream of the suction port of the air blowing circuit, an air purifier or an air conditioner capable of decomposing and removing ozone generated from the ion generator can be obtained. Can be

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS <First Embodiment> A first embodiment of the present invention
An embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG.
It is an outline side sectional view of the air cleaner concerning this embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes an ion generator according to the present invention to be described later, 12 denotes an air outlet, 13 denotes a prefilter disposed downstream of the air 12, and 14 denotes activated carbon carrying an ozone decomposition catalyst such as manganese dioxide. Filter, 15 is HE
A PA filter, 16 is a blower fan, and 17 is an air suction port.

Next, a schematic configuration of the ion generating tube of the ion generating apparatus 11 is shown in a sectional view of FIG. A cylindrical inner electrode 22 and an outer electrode 23 made of a metal mesh are opposed to each other on the inside and outside with a Pyrek glass tube 21 (thickness: 1 mm), which is a cylindrical insulator having one end closed. It is arranged.

When stainless steel mesh is used for the inner electrode 22 and the outer electrode 23 of the ion generator 11, the concentration of the generated negative ions and positive ions (pieces / cc) depends on the number of mesh openings. Was observed to change. FIG. 3 shows a case where a 48 mesh stainless mesh is used for the inner electrode 22 and the other ground (GND) is used.
The stainless steel mesh (9 mesh to 100 mesh) having a different opening number is used for the outer electrode 23 of
The relationship between the number of openings of the stainless steel mesh of the outer electrode 23 and the concentration of generated ions when an AC voltage is applied between the electrodes 23 is shown.

The conditions are as follows. Outer electrode 23 is GN
As the D potential, an AC voltage having a frequency of 15 kHz and a voltage of 1.1 to 1.4 kV (effective value) was applied to the inner electrode 22 using a high frequency circuit. As is clear from FIG.
When the number of openings increases, the generated ion concentration also tends to increase. However, when the number of openings is 30 mesh or more, the increase in ion concentration may be considered to be almost flat.

On the other hand, when an AC voltage is applied to the ion generator 11 according to the present invention, not only a small amount of ozone is generated together with the ions, but ozone not only has an unpleasant odor but also is a substance harmful to the human body. It is desirable to minimize the amount of ozone generated. FIG. 4 shows that 4
An 8 mesh stainless mesh is used, and a stainless mesh (9 mesh to 100 mesh) having a different number of openings is used for the outer electrode 23 of the other ground (GND).
The relationship between the number of openings of the stainless steel mesh of the outer electrode 23 and the concentration (ppm) of generated ozone when an AC voltage is applied between the electrodes 22 and 23 is shown.

The conditions are as follows. Outer electrode 23 is GN
As the D potential, an AC voltage having a frequency of 15 kHz and a voltage of 1.1 to 1.4 kV (effective value) was applied to the inner electrode 22 using a high frequency circuit. As is clear from FIG.
As the number of openings increases, the concentration of ozone generated also tends to increase, but it can be seen that the ozone concentration is generally flat in the range of about 30 to 60 mesh.

Therefore, from FIGS. 3 and 4, in order to suppress the generation of ozone and to secure the maximum ion generation amount, when a 48 mesh stainless steel mesh is used for the inner electrode 22, the aperture of the outer electrode 23 is used. Number is 30mes-60mes
h has been found to be desirable.

Under the same conditions as described above, ions emitted from the ion generator 11 were measured by an air ion counter, and small ions having a mobility of 1 cm ² / Vsec or more were detected. At a position 20 cm away from the side of the glass tube 21, 20 to 4
About 100,000 positive ions and negative ions were simultaneously measured.

The ion generator 11 having such characteristics
As shown in FIG. 1, was provided on the upstream side of the air outlet 17 of the air blower circuit of the air purifier, and the performance of removing airborne bacteria in the air was evaluated. The air purifier was installed in a container having a volume of 1 m ³ , and general viable bacteria and fungi cultured on a medium in advance were sprayed into the container. Then, the ion generator 11 was operated, and at the same time, the operation of the air purifier was started, and the concentration of bacteria was measured at predetermined intervals. The measurement employed a method in which air in the container was sucked at a rate of 40 L / min using an air sampler and sampling was performed for 4 minutes.

As an embodiment, the inner electrode 22 and the outer electrode 23
The sterilization effect was compared between a case where an 8 mesh stainless mesh was used and a case where a 100 mesh stainless mesh was used for the inner electrode 22 and the outer electrode 23 as a comparative example. Table 1 shows the results.

[0024]

[Table 1]

Three hours after the operation of the air purifier was started, 92% of general viable bacteria and 92% of fungi could be eliminated in Examples. On the other hand, in the case of the comparative example, general viable bacteria were 82% and fungi were 82%, and the example had a sterilizing effect.

Therefore, it has been proved that the use of the air purifier provided with the ion generator according to the present embodiment makes it possible to extremely effectively remove the suspended bacteria in the air.
Ozone generated together with positive ions and negative ions was almost decomposed by the activated carbon filter 14 carrying an ozone decomposition catalyst, and the odor peculiar to ozone was not felt.

<Second Embodiment> A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a schematic side sectional view of the air conditioner according to the present embodiment. FIG.
In the above, 11 is the ion generator according to the present invention described above, 42 is an air inlet, 43 is a prefilter disposed downstream of the air inlet 42, 44 is activated carbon carrying an ozone decomposition catalyst such as manganese dioxide. A filter, 46 is a blower fan, 47 is an air outlet, and 48 is a heat exchanger.

As in the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the ion generator 11 is provided upstream of the air outlet 47 of the air blower circuit of the air conditioner to remove airborne bacteria in the air. The performance was evaluated. This air conditioner was installed in a container having a volume of 1 m ³ , and general viable bacteria and fungi cultured in advance in a culture site were sprayed into the container. And the ion generator 1
1 and start operation of the air conditioner,
At predetermined times, the concentration of bacteria was measured. The measurement employed a method in which air in the container was sucked at a rate of 40 L / min using an air sampler and sampling was performed for 4 minutes.

As an embodiment, the inner electrode 22 and the outer electrode 23
The sterilization effect was compared between a case where an 8 mesh stainless mesh was used and a case where a 100 mesh stainless mesh was used for the inner electrode 22 and the outer electrode 23 as a comparative example. Table 2 shows the results.

[0030]

[Table 2]

Three hours after the operation of the air purifier was started, in the example, 91% of general viable bacteria and 91% of fungi could be removed. On the other hand, in the case of the comparative example, general viable bacteria were 80% and fungi were 87%, and the example had a sterilizing effect.

Therefore, it was proved that the use of the air conditioner according to the present embodiment makes it possible to very effectively remove airborne bacteria in the air. Ozone generated together with positive ions and negative ions was almost decomposed by the activated carbon filter 44 carrying an ozone decomposition catalyst, and the odor peculiar to ozone was not felt.

In the above embodiment, the electrodes 22 and 23 are made of stainless steel (SUS3) which is a conductive oxidation-resistant material.
Although the mesh of 04) was used, other metals such as tungsten, platinum, gold, silver, and palladium may be used as long as they are oxidation-resistant substances. When a noble metal such as platinum, gold, silver or palladium is used, the electrode may be formed by forming a coating on the surface of a relatively inexpensive metal such as titanium.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, positive ions and negative ions are simultaneously generated by applying an AC high voltage between the first and second electrodes opposed to each other with an insulator interposed therebetween. In an air purifier or an air conditioner equipped with an ion generator, since an inexpensive stainless steel mesh was used as the first electrode and the second electrode, the cost of the air purifier or the air conditioner was reduced,
Active species generated by the chemical reaction of both positive and negative ions generated from the ion generator are sent out to the space in a large amount, so that the suspended bacteria in the air can be quickly removed.

In this case, by setting the number of openings of the mesh electrode in the range of 30 to 60 mesh, it is possible to sufficiently secure the generation amount of ions having a sterilizing effect and to suppress the generation of unpleasant odorous ozone. . Most of the generated ozone can be decomposed and removed by passing the ozone through an activated carbon filter carrying an ozone decomposition catalyst provided downstream of the suction port of the air blower circuit of the air purifier or air conditioner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side sectional view of an air purifier provided with an ion generator according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side sectional view of the ion generator.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing a relationship between the number of openings of a GND electrode of the ion generator and the generation concentration of positive ions and negative ions.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the ozone generation concentration and the number of openings of a GND electrode of the ion generator. It is a graph which shows the generation | occurrence | production density of a positive ion and a negative ion.

FIG. 5 is a schematic side sectional view of an air purifier provided with an ion generator according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Ion generator 12, 42 Air inlet 13, 43 Prefilter 14, 44 Activated carbon filter 15 HEPA filter 16, 46 Ventilation fan 17, 47 Air outlet 21 Cylindrical glass 22 Inner electrode 23 Outer electrode 48 Heat exchanger

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Hideo Nojima 22-22, Nagaikecho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka F-term (reference) 3L053 BD01 BD02 BD05 4C080 AA09 BB05 QQ11 QQ20 4G042 CA01 CB26 CC05 CC10 CC18 CC20 CE04

Claims (8)

[Claims] A first electrode and a second electrode facing each other across an insulator;
An air purifier provided with an ion generator for simultaneously generating positive ions and negative ions by applying an AC voltage between the electrodes, wherein the first electrode and the second electrode have a conductive oxidation-resistant material. An air purifier provided with an ion generator, characterized by using: 2. The air purifier equipped with the ion generator according to claim 1, wherein a stainless steel mesh is used as the oxidation resistant material. 3. The number of openings of the stainless steel mesh is:
The air purifier provided with the ion generator according to claim 2, wherein the air purifier is within a range of 30 to 60 mesh. 4. The ion generator according to claim 1, wherein an activated carbon filter carrying an ozone decomposition catalyst is provided downstream of the suction port of the air blowing circuit. Air purifier. 5. A first electrode and a second electrode facing each other across an insulator.
An air conditioner provided with an ion generator that simultaneously generates positive ions and negative ions by applying an AC voltage between the electrodes, wherein the first electrode and the second electrode have a conductive oxidation-resistant material. An air conditioner provided with an ion generator characterized by using: 6. An air conditioner equipped with an ion generator according to claim 5, wherein a stainless steel mesh is used as said oxidation resistant material. 7. The stainless mesh according to claim 7, wherein the number of openings is:
The air conditioner provided with the ion generator according to claim 6, wherein the air conditioner is within a range of 30 to 60 mesh. 8. The ion generator according to claim 5, wherein an activated carbon filter carrying an ozone decomposition catalyst is provided downstream of the suction port of the air blowing circuit. Air conditioner.