Innovation classes ignite passion for invention -- Under Mr. Huang's guidance, Huang Simian also installed two high-voltage electrodes in the purifier. After the positive and negative electrodes are powered on, they can achieve the effect of electrostatic dust removal.
Huang Simian told reporters that she looked up online and found out that the price of an indoor PM2.5 detector is 20,000 yuan, but the school laboratory does not yet have the funds to purchase one. If the funds are in place or if an institution provides such detection, then the development path of the "water hookah" purifier can continue.
Using only water filtration to deal with PM2.5 is not enough, so Xiao Huang also adopted the fog filtration method. Fog is a crystal formed by the contact of water vapor in the air with dust, and fog has the function of adsorbing dust particles. In order to create "artificial fog", Xiao Huang searched repeatedly online and finally bought an "ultrasonic atomizer". This device was originally used in air humidifiers, and she installed three ultrasonic atomizers into the air purifier to "collaborate" with the oxygen-increasing pump. After the ultrasonic atomizer is powered on, it can be seen that the water body of the purifier emits a stream of mist, which adsorbs PM2.5 in the air.
At Xiangming Middle School, there is a course called "innovation class". Every time in class, Mr. Huang Zengxin, a member of the Shanghai Invention Association, introduces students to recent social hotspots and stimulates their enthusiasm for invention. In a class not long ago, Huang Simian learned about the new term "PM2.5". It refers to particulate matter in the atmosphere with a diameter less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers, only 1/10 of the diameter of human hair. These particles, when inhaled into the human body, will directly enter the bronchi, causing diseases including asthma, bronchitis, and cardiovascular disease. Recently, China's environmental protection department has put "monitoring and publishing PM2.5" on the agenda, and how to manage PM2.5 has attracted widespread public attention.
Xiao Huang said that after this device design matures, it can be installed on the indoor wall like a wall-mounted air conditioner. Air outside is sucked in through a duct connected to the instrument, and clean air without PM2.5 is introduced indoors. This device can also be designed to be smaller, becoming a PM2.5 car air purifier, allowing people to avoid inhaling polluted gases while traveling by car.
Using water, fog, and ultrasonic filtration
Yesterday, reporters entered the laboratory of Xiangming Middle School and saw that Xiao Huang's invention had taken shape. This air purifier consists of an outer shell and several devices. There is a lot of water in the transparent outer shell. At the bottom of the "water tank", there are three submersible oxygen-increasing pumps, which are connected to three ducts. Through the ducts, the oxygen-increasing pump draws the air around the purifier into the water, producing a large amount of bubbles. Huang Simian said that submersible oxygen-increasing pumps were originally used to raise ornamental fish. Installing them in the air purifier is to draw a large amount of outdoor air into the water, allowing the air to fully contact with the water. Thus, the device becomes an enlarged version of a "water hookah", making a large amount of PM2.5 in the air dissolve in the water.
How to reduce PM2.5 in the air? Xiao Huang began to explore. At home, she looked up information online to understand various technologies and equipment for air purification; at school, she often discussed with Mr. Huang Zengxin and designed her invention plan under the teacher's inspiration.
Regarding this invention, Zhang Mingxu, deputy director of the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center, expressed that from a principle perspective, this scheme of water filtration, fog filtration, and electrostatic dust removal using "three-pronged approach" is scientific and should be able to remove some PM2.5 from the air, but its purification efficiency needs to be evaluated through test reports. The instruments used by the environmental monitoring center are all used for outdoor PM2.5 detection and cannot detect the purification effect of this invention.
Of course, to turn these ideas into reality, Huang Simian needs to prove with experimental data that her invention can remove a large amount of PM2.5 from the air. Preliminary experiments show that this device can remove smoke from the incoming gas. During the winter vacation, she plans to conduct a more precise experiment: replacing the water in the purifier with distilled water, sampling the water after it works for a period of time, evaporating it, and observing it with an electron microscope to detect whether PM2.5 particles are present in the water. If so, it proves that the device has the function of filtering PM2.5.
Hope to use instruments to detect purification effects
[Evening Post] Reporter Yu Taoran reported
Xiao Huang also envisioned improving this invention into an outdoor air purifying device. "The exhaust emissions from cars and coal-fired power plants are the two main sources of PM2.5 in the atmosphere. If we install 'water hookahs' in cars and coal-fired power plants, perhaps we can reduce the concentration of PM2.5 in the atmosphere."
"In the past, many people smoked water pipes, and the smoke passed through the water, where a large amount of nicotine and tar would dissolve in the water." In a discussion, Mr. Huang mentioned water pipes to Xiao Huang. Can water be injected into the air purifier to let the water filter out PM2.5 from the atmosphere? Huang Simian suddenly had an idea. However, the filtration effect of air entering the water is estimated to be very limited. How to improve the efficiency of the purifier? Xiao Huang embarked on a new round of exploration.
These days, Huang Simian, a first-year high school student at Xiangming Middle School, goes straight into the laboratory every day after arriving at school to tinker with her invention - the PM2.5 air purifier. Not long ago in an innovation class, Xiao Huang heard the science teacher Huang Zengxin talk about PM2.5 particles, and she came up with the idea of inventing a purifier to prevent PM2.5 from entering indoors. Now, the prototype of this instrument has been born in the laboratory, and its scientific nature has been recognized by experts. "I hope to get a detection instrument, and use data to test the purification effect of this invention," Huang Simian told reporters.