IG7 Page 10
When air is ionized during the corona effect, you will see a sharp point of
purple on the end of the metal tip. This indicates that air is either being
stripped of electrons or electrons are being added to the air. The process
emits some light as the electrons are moved about due to them jumping va-
lences in the gas molecule. The problem is when air becomes highly ionized,
it also can become quite reactive as well. This means that the Nitrogen in the
air can combine with Oxygen to form Nitric Oxide (NO), and Oxygen to form
Ozone (O
3
). Both of these components are very reactive, and in large quanti-
ties can do a lot of harm to your lungs.
Usually in a device such as this, the quantity of Ozone generated is very low
and Nitrous Oxide is almost undetectable. We will work to reduce the Ozone
to a very low level to where it isn’t a heath risk at all. Ozone counteracts any
benefits that we may get from negative ions, so ideally we would like to get rid
of the Ozone product altogether. Ozone does however have its benefits. It re-
acts with most odors in the air and will neutralize them as well as killing most
airborne viruses and bacteria. This factor can be quite helpful in a bathroom,
animal room, or near garbage cans.
To reduce the Ozone generated we will try and get a good balance between
the amount of air we will ionize and the amount of ions we want to bleed off.
We do this by sharpening the tips of our electrodes and adding enough elec-
trode elements that it effectively reduces the supply voltage to the bare mini-
mum to ionize the air. The steeper the voltage gradient is, the better the
chances of creating Ozone from the fact that air will become heavily ionized
within this gradient. We are going to reduce the steepness of the gradient by
using a very sharp point and reducing the terminal voltage due to loading.
Another thing that amplifies how much Ozone is produced is the type of ion
that we are creating. Positively ionized air creates Ozone at a much greater
rate than negatively ionized air. This is part of the reason why our supply will
be generating negative ions instead of positive ones. It is also rumored that it
is negative ions which have most of the heath benefits.
Keep in mind that ions in the air can transfer a great amount of voltage and
current invisibly to all sorts of surfaces. Air movement from fans and open win-
dows can move strongly charged air on its way to sensitive components.
Imagine the surface of a chip inside of your nice new computer whose non-
conductive surface acts like a capacitor to the conductive material inside. The
charge from air ions sticking to it builds up over time to the point that it dis-
charges to one of the leads and destroys the device!
As air ions move, they loose some of their energy. The amount of energy
that is lost completely depends on how strong the originating terminal voltage
was that generated it. For example a 100 kV terminal may be able to transfer
some ions up to 10 feet away and still have a potential of 20 kV! 20 kV is a lot
to a circuit that can only take a discharge voltage of 1 kV, a common specifi-
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