instructables

Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier

by Merenel Research

Hello community of Instructable,
I hope you are all well in the emergency circumstances
we are living in this moment.
Today I am bringing to you an applied research project.
In this Instructable I will be teaching you how to build an
air puri er working with a TiO2 (Titanium Dioxide)
photocatalyc lter and UVA LEDs. I will tell you how to
make your own puri er and I will also show you an
experiment. According to scienti c literature this lter
should remove bad odors and kill bacteria and viruses in
the air that goes through it, including coronavirus family.
I would like to share this project as I believe it could be a
particularly interesting one because it tries to solve a
serious problem and because its multidisciplinary: it
brings together notion of chemistry, electronics and
mechanical design.
The steps:
1. Photocatalysis with TiO2 and UV light
2. Supplies
3. 3D Design of the air puri er

In this research paper you can see how this technology 4. Electronic circuit
can be used e ectively to kill bacteria, fungi and viruses;
they actually quote a research of 2004 titled The 5. Solder and assemble
Inactivation E ect of Photocatalytic Titanium Apatite
Filter on SARS Virus, in which the researchers state that 6. The device complete
99.99% of severe acute respiratory syndrome viruses
were killed. 7. The stinky shoe puri cation e ort

Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 1

Step 1: Photocatalysis With TiO2 and UV Light

Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 2

In this section I will explain the theory behind the
reaction.
Everything is summarized graphically in the image
above. Below I will explain the image.
Basically, the photon with enough energy arrives in the
molecule of TiO2 in the orbit where an electron is
spinning. The photon hits the electron hard and makes it
jump away from the valence band to the conduction
band, this jump is possible because TiO2 is a
semiconductor and because the photon has enough
energy. The energy of the photon is determined by its
wavelength according to this formula:
E = hc/λ
where h is the Plank Constant, c is the speed of light and
λ is the wavelength of the photon, which in our case is
365nm. You can calculate the energy using this nice
online calculator. I our case it is E=3,397 eV.
Once the electron jumps away there is a free electron
and a free hole where it once was:
electron e-
hole h+
And these two in turn are hit by some other molecules
that are parts of the air which are:
one to the other to form a polymer, or in other words to
make what we more broadly call plastic (but that's
another story).
O2- hits big bad odor molecules and bacteria and breaks For further information I have attached the PDF of the
their carbon bonds forming CO2 (carbon dioxide) scienti c papers that I quoted in the intro.
*OH hits big bad odor molecules and bacteria and
breaks their hydrogen bonds forming H2O (water vapor)
Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 3
H2O molecule of water vapor
OH- Hydroxide
O2 molecule of oxygen
A few redox reactions happen (learn more about them in
this video).
Oxidation:
Water vapor plus a hole gives hydroxyl radical plus
hydrated hydrogen ion: H2O + h+ → *OH + H+(aq)
Hydroxide plus a hole gives hydroxyl radical: OH- + h+
→ *OH
Reduction:
oxygen molecule plus an electron gives superoxide
anion: O2 + e- → O2-
This two new things formed (hydroxyl radical and
superoxide anion) are free radicals. A free radical is an
atom, molecule or ions with a single unpaired electron,
this is crazy unstable as said in this very funny Crush
Course video.
Free radicals are the main responsible for many chain
reactions that happen in chemistry, for example
polymerization, which happens when monomers joins
The union of the free radical to carbon compounds or
organisms is called mineralization and this is exactly
where the killing is happening.
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Step 2: Supplies

To make this project you'll need: - EU connector 5/2.1mm

- 3D printed case - Fan 40x10mm

- 3D printed lid - thermal shrieking tubes

- laser cut anodized aluminum 2mm thick - countersunk head M3 bolts and nuts

- silk screen (optional, eventually I didn't use it) - 5 1W 5ohm resistors

- 5 pieces of high power UV LED 365nm - 1 0.5W 15ohm resistor

- PCB stars with 3535 footprint or LEDs already mounted - small wires
on a star
I have added the links for purchasing some stu but I am
- thermal double-sided adhesive tape not running any a liate program with the vendors. I put
the links only because if somebody would like to
- TiO2 Photocatalyst Filter replicate the air puri er in this way can have an idea of
the supplies and costs.
- Power supply 20W 5V

Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 4

Step 3: 3D Design of the Air Purifier

You can nd the whole assembly le in format .x_b in
the achieve.
You may notice that I had to optimize the case for 3D
printing. I made the walls thicker and I decided not
smooth the angle at the base.
The heatsink is laser cut and milled. There is a 1mm
lowering on the 2mm anodized aluminum (RED ZONE)
that allows for better bending. The bending has been
done manually with pliers and vise.
A friend of mine made me notice that the pattern on the
front of the case is similar to the tattoo that Leeloo wears
in the movie the The Fifth Element. Funny coincidence!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvki-6WUvkY

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Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 5

Step 4: Electronic Circuit
The electronic circuit is very easy. We have a constant
voltage power supply of 5V and in parallel we are going
to place 5 LEDs and a fan. Through a bunch of resistors
and with some math calculations we decide how much
current we would feed into the LEDs and into the fan.
THE LEDs
Looking at the LED datasheet we see that we can drive
them up to 500mA maximum, but I decided to drive
them at half power (≈250mA). The reason is that we have
a small heatsink, which is basically the aluminum plate at
which they are attached to. If we drive the LED at 250mA
the forward voltage of the LED is 3.72V. According to the
resistance that we decide to put on that branch of the
circuit we obtain the current.
5V - 3.72V = 1.28V is the voltage potential we have on
the resistor
Ohm law R = V/I = 1.28/0.25 = 6.4ohm
Step 5: Solder and Assemble
Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 6
I will use the commercial value of resistance of 5ohm
Power of the resistor = R I^2 = 0.31W (I have actually
used 1W resistors, I left some margin because the LED
could heat up the area quite a bit).
THE FAN
The fan suggested voltage is 5V and 180mA current, if
driven with this power it can move air at the ow rate of
12m3/h. I noticed that going at this speed the fan was
too noisy (27dB), so I decided to lower a bit the voltage
supply and the current supply to the fan, to do so this I
used a resistor of 15ohm. To understand the value
needed I used a potentiometer and I saw when I would
have around half of the current, 100mA.
Power of resistor = R I^2 = 0.15W (I've used 0.5W resistor
here)
So the actual nal ow rate of the fan results 7.13 m3/h.
I have used thin cables to join the LEDs together and
make the whole circuit and soldered everything as
organized as possible. You can see that the resistors are
protected inside heat shrink tubing. Be aware that you
have to solder the anode and the chatode of LEDs to the
right poles. The anodes goes to one resistor end and the
cathodes goes to GND (-5V in our case). On the LED
there is an anode mark, nd the location of it looking it
up in the LED datasheet. LEDs are attached to the
heatsink with thermal double-sided adhesive tape.
I have actually used a DC connector (the transparent
one) to easily remove the whole block shown in the rst
picture (heatsink, LEDs and fan), however this element
can be avoided.
The black 5/2.1 EU DC main power supply connector has
been glued in an hole that I drilled manually.
The side holes I made in the lid to x the lid with screws
to the case were also drilled manually.
Making all the soldering in that small space was a little
challenge. I hope you'll enjoy embracing it.

Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 7

Step 6: The Device Is Complete!
Congratulations! Just plug it and start purifying air.
The air ow rate is 7.13 m3/h so a room of 3x3x3m
should be puri ed in around 4h.
When the puri er is on I have noticed that out of it
comes an odor that reminds me of ozone.
I hope you have liked this Instructable and if you are
even more curios there is an extra section about an
Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 8
experiment I made.
If you are not willing to build your own air puri er but
you would like just to get it straight away you could buy
it on Etsy. I made a couple so feel free to visit the page.
Bye and take care,
Pietro
Step 7: Experiment: the Stinky Shoe Purification Effort

Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 9

In this extra section I would like to show a little funny dramatically.
experiment that I did with the puri er.
So according to this experiment something was
Initially I put a very stinky shoe - I assure you it really happening inside that cylinder. If VOC and bacteria are
smelt bad - in an hermetic acrylic cylinder with a volume being destroyed through the process of mineralization
of 0.0063 m3. What should make that shoe that smelly the theory tells us that CO2 and H2O is formed, so one
are big molecules containing sulfur and carbon and also could say that it is working because the experiment
bioe uents and bacteria coming from the foot that was shows that CO2 is keep forming, but why also VOC kept
wearing that shoe. What I was expecting to see when I increasing? The reason may be that I used the wrong
turned the puri er on was the VOC to reduce and CO2 to sensor. The sensor I used is the one shown in the picture
increase. and from what I understood it estimates CO2 according
to a percentage of VOC using some internal algorithms
I left the shoe there in the cylinder for 30min in order to and also reach VOC saturation easily. The algorithm,
reach the "stink balance" inside the container. And which is developed and integrated into the sensor
through a sensor I noticed a massive increase in CO2 module interpreted the raw data, e.g. metal oxide
(+333%) and VOC (+120%). semiconductor resistance value, in CO2 equivalent value
by doing the comparison test against NDIR CO2 gas
At minute 30 I placed inside the cylinder the air puri er sensor and Total VOC value based on the comparison
and I turned it on for 5min. I noticed a further increase in test with instrument FID. I think that I did not used
CO2 (+40%) and VOC (+38%). equipment sophisticated and accurate enough.

I removed the stinky shoe and I left the puri er turned Anyway it has been funny to try to test out the system
on for 9min and CO2 and VOC were keeping to increase this way.

Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 10

 Download

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I may be wrong about this, as it is not my field of expertise, but I believe the COVID-19 virus is
sensitive to UV-C radiation, not UV-A, so aside from the titanium dioxide filter, I'm not sure this is
doing much against that particular virus. Also, that ozone-like smell you noticed is probably
actually ozone, as UV light can produce ozone, depending on the wavelength.
Hello, if the virus is on a surface which is closely lit with UVC light for some time, it should die, as
you say, because UVC wavelength should break its DNA.
In this research they actually did it with a source irradiating 4mW/cm2 at 254nm and noticed that
the virus died in 5min under UVC light, but it didn't died under sole UVA light (see the chart in the
picture).
Link to the research: http://www.duvtek.com/article/140/

I don't know if this air purifier can kill COVID-19. However, I just quote the abstract of this other
research of 2004 in which they did the experiment on SARS-CoV in which they employed not only
UVA light, but also TiO2 filter, and it worked
http://www.pibb.ac.cn/pibben/ch/reader/create_pdf.aspx?
file_no=20041106&flag=1&journal_id=pibben

Here is what they say at the end of the experiment:

Photocatalytic titanium apatite filter (PTAF) is a new material that has been reported to have an
ability to absorb and inactivate bacteria. The inactivation effect of PTAF on serious acute
respiratory syndrome coronary virus (SARS-CoV) was tested. The results showed that PTAF filter
inactivated/decomposed SARS CoV up to 99.99% after 6 h interaction under the condition of
non-UV irradiation. However, under the condition of UV irradiation, PTAF and HAF both were able
to inactivate/decompose SARS CoV completely. The study has provided the first evidences that
PTAF could inactivate SARS-CoV virus, suggesting that the PTAF material will be applied for the
prevention of SARS-CoV as well as other viruses.

Titanium Dioxide and UV Air Purifier: Page 11