question: how plasma air cleaners work
comment: 'Plasma' air cleaners are a form of electrostatic precipitation. they use giant ones in a lot of manufacturing processes. The idea is that a lot of particulate matter that comes from fire (and other hot sources) is often charged (has a + or a minus), so if you run it past a plate that has an electrical current running through it, it will stick to that plate. You may notice at home that your computer/tv/lights tends to get dustier than other non electric things, thats why. So basically they are good at getting dust out of the air. The problem with using them in indoor air is that rooms are rarely well mixed. You would need to attach them directly to a ventilation system, not just around the place. It won't get all the air but might help if for example there is an air connection between the main house and the garage. It would be better to rinse your gear with water (maybe add a little baking soda to the water if you want to be safe). I would look into HEPA filters as an alternate (do a price check), and maybe a cheap PM sensor (Plantower works pretty well). It is unlikely to help with sickness.
passages: The gas or mixture of gases is energized by an electrical field from DC to microwave frequencies, typically 1–500 W at 50 V. The treated components are usually electrically isolated. The volatile plasma by-products are evacuated from the chamber by the vacuum pump, and if necessary can be neutralized in an exhaust scrubber.
  
  In contrast to molecular chemistry, plasmas employ:
  
  BULLET::::- Molecular, atomic, metastable and free radical species for chemical effects.
  
  BULLET::::- Positive ions and electrons for kinetic effects.
   Plasma cleaning
  
  Plasma cleaning is the removal of impurities and contaminants from surfaces through the use of an energetic plasma or dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma created from gaseous species. Gases such as argon and oxygen, as well as mixtures such as air and hydrogen/nitrogen are used. The plasma is created by using high frequency voltages (typically kHz to MHz) to ionise the low pressure gas (typically around 1/1000 atmospheric pressure), although atmospheric pressure plasmas are now also common.
  
  Section::::Methods.
   Section::::Plasma spraying.:Applications.
   A polymer dispersion aerosol can be injected into the plasma discharge in order to create a grafting of this polymer on to a substrate surface. This application is mainly used to modify the surface chemistry of polymers.
  
  Section::::Plasma spraying.:Variations.
  
  Plasma spraying systems can be categorized by several criteria.
  
  Plasma jet generation:
  
  BULLET::::- direct current (DC plasma), where the energy is transferred to the plasma jet by a direct current, high-power electric arc
  
  BULLET::::- induction plasma or RF plasma, where the energy is transferred by induction from a coil around the plasma jet, through which an alternating, radio-frequency current passes
   Section::::Plasma spraying.
   The plasma pencil is a dielectric tube where two disk-shaped electrodes of about the same diameter as the tube are inserted, and are separated by a small gap. Each of the two electrodes is made of a thin copper ring attached to the surface of a centrally perforated dielectric disk. The plasma is ignited when nanoseconds-wide high voltage pulses at kHz repetition rate are applied between the two electrodes and a gas mixture (such as helium and oxygen) is flown through the holes of the electrodes. When a plasma is ignited in the gap between the electrodes, a plasma plume reaching lengths up to 12 cm is launched through the aperture of the outer electrode and into the surrounding room air. The cold plasma plume emitted by the plasma pencil can be used to kill bacteria without harming skin tissue. 
   If the part to be treated consists of easily oxidized materials such as silver or copper, inert gases such as argon or helium are used instead. The plasma activated atoms and ions behave like a molecular sandblast and can break down organic contaminants. These contaminants are again vapourised and evacuated from the chamber during processing.
  
  Most of these by-products are small quantities of gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor with trace amounts of carbon monoxide and other hydrocarbons.
   Plate precipitators are commonly marketed to the public as air purifier devices or as a permanent replacement for furnace filters, but all have the undesirable attribute of being somewhat messy to clean. A negative side-effect of electrostatic precipitation devices is the potential production of toxic ozone and . However, electrostatic precipitators offer benefits over other air purifications technologies, such as HEPA filtration, which require expensive filters and can become "production sinks" for many harmful forms of bacteria.
   Section::::Plasma spraying.:Deposit properties.
   Boeing filed a series of patents related to the concept of plasma stealth. In US 7,744,039 B2, Jun. 2010, a system to control air flow with electrical pulses is described. In US 7,988,101 B2, Aug. 2011, a plasma generating device is used to create a plasma flow on the trailing edge, which can change its RCS. In US 8,016,246 B2 Sep. 2011, a plasma actuator system is used to camouflage weapon bay on a fighter when it is open. In US 8,016,247 B2, the plasma actuator system is described in detail, which is basically a dielectric barrier discharge device. In US 8,157,528 B1 Apr. 2012, a plasma actuating cascade array for use on rotor blade is described. In US 8,220,753 B2 Jul. 2012, a system for controlling airflow on wing surface with pulsed discharge is described.
   A key advantage of this system lies in its capability of being integrated in-line. This means that it can usually be installed without any difficulty in existing production systems. In addition the activation achievable is distinctly higher than in potential-based pretreatment methods (corona discharge).
  
  It is possible to coat varied surfaces by means of this technique. Thus, anticorrosive layers and adhesion promoter layers can be applied to many metals without the use of solvents and hence in an environmentally friendly manner.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Laser Schlieren Deflectometry
  
  BULLET::::- List of plasma (physics) articles
  
  BULLET::::- Dielectric barrier discharge
  
  BULLET::::- Plasma pencil
   Plasma torch
  
  A plasma torch (also known as a plasma arc, plasma gun, or plasma cutter, plasmatron) is a device for generating a directed flow of plasma.
  
  The plasma jet can be used for applications including plasma cutting, plasma arc welding, plasma spraying, and plasma gasification for waste disposal.
  
  Section::::Types of thermal plasma torches.
   The inventors of PTWA received the 2009 IPO National Inventor of the Year award. This technology was initially patented and developed by inventors by Flame-Spray Industries, Inc. The technology was subsequently improved upon by Ford and Flame-Spray Industries. PTWA is currently in use by Nissan in the Nissan GTR, Ford is implementing it in the new Mustang GT500 Shelby, Caterpillar and other manufacturers are using it for re-manufacturing.
   After treatment, the contact angle of a water droplet is decreased becoming less than its value on the untreated surface. In Fig. 4, the relaxation curve for droplet footprint is shown for glass sample. A photograph of the same droplet on the untreated surface is shown in Fig. 4 inset. Surface relaxation time corresponding to a data shown in Fig. 4 is about 4 hours.
  
  Plasma ashing is the process in which plasma cleaning is performed for the sole purpose of removing carbon. Plasma ashing is always done with O gas.
  
  Section::::Applications.
   The plasma jet is used, among other things, in industry for activating and cleaning plastic and metal surfaces prior to adhesive bonding and painting processes. Even sheet materials having treatment widths of several meters can be treated today by aligning a large number of jets in a row. In doing so the modification of the surface achieved by plasma jets is comparable to the effects obtained with low-pressure plasma.
   Most devices of this type produce thin (mm diameter) plasma jets, larger surfaces can be treated simultaneously by joining many such jets or by multielectrode systems. Significantly larger surfaces can be treated than with an individual jet. Further, the distance between the device and the skin is to a certain degree variable, as the skin is not needed as a plasma electrode, significantly simplifying use on the patient.
  
  Low temperature plasma jets have been used in various biomedical applications ranging from the inactivation of bacteria to the killing of cancer cells.
  
  Section::::Applications.
   Plasma cleaning is often required for the removal of contaminants from surfaces before they can be used in a manufacturing process. Plasma cleaning can be applied to an array of materials along with surfaces with complex geometries. Plasma cleaning has the capabilities to effectively remove all organic contaminations from surfaces through the process of a chemical reaction (air plasma) or physical ablation (Ar plasma/ Argon plasma). A photograph of a plasma beam on an untreated metal surface is shown in Fig. 5 inset.
   In classical (developed between 1910 and 1920) but still widely used processes such as flame spraying and wire arc spraying, the particle velocities are generally low ( 150 m/s), and raw materials must be molten to be deposited. Plasma spraying, developed in the 1970s, uses
  
  a high-temperature plasma jet generated by arc discharge
  
  with typical temperatures 15,000 K, which makes it
  
  possible to spray refractory materials such as oxides, molybdenum, etc.
  
  Section::::System overview.
  
  A typical thermal spray system consists of the following:
   Dusty plasmas are often studied in laboratory setups. The dust particles can be grown inside the plasma, or microparticles can be inserted. Usually, a low temperature plasma with a low degree of ionization is used. The microparticles then become the dominant component regarding the energy and momentum transport, and they can essentially be regarded as single-species system. This system can exist in all three classical phases, solid, liquid and gaseous, and can be used to study effects such as crystallization, wave and shock propagation, defect propagation, etc.
   Section::::Basic operating mechanism.
  
  Section::::Basic operating mechanism.:Glow discharge.
   Stationary afterglow (SA) is a technique for studying remote plasma that consist of a gaseous mixture inside a bulb that is subjected to an ionizing pulse. After said ionizing pulse the ion composition of the mixture is measured as a function of time at the wall of the containing bulb. Stationary afterglow methods are often used to study atmospheric reactions as they mimic atmospheric conditions in a controlled environment.
  
  Section::::Applications.:Sterilization.
   Section::::Thermal barrier coatings.
   A fourth type of system growing in popularity is the atmospheric-pressure plasma system, which is useful for depositing thin polymer films. This system bypasses the requirements for special hardware involving vacuums, which then makes it favorable for integrated industrial use. It has been shown that polymers formed at atmospheric-pressure can have similar properties for coatings as those found in the low-pressure systems.
  
  Section::::Basic operating mechanism.:Physical process characteristics.
   BULLET::::- Bag: The most common method to capture the debris vacuumed up involves a paper or fabric bag that allows air to pass through, but attempts to trap most of the dust and debris. The bag may be disposable, or designed to be cleaned and re-used.
  
  BULLET::::- Bagless: In non-cyclonic bagless models, the role of the bag is taken by a removable container and a reusable filter, equivalent to a reusable fabric bag.
   Most modern hypoallergenic vacuum cleaners use a system consisting of four primary components: the final output filter (generally a HEPA or similar filter), the motor and fan or impeller assembly, secondary particle filter to protect the motor assembly, and a primary filter - a bag, cup or wet filter bucket (each of which provide the initial filtration and retention of most dust and contaminants).
  