Grocery stores, as well as hospitals, daycare centers, offices, homes, and other environments benefit from air purification technology. After NASA used the technology to prolong plant growth in space, a company adapted it to create a device to protect perishable foods by removing withering gasses. But it also turned out to remove virtually 100 percent of harmful airborne organic compounds, pathogens, and molds. It is now widely used in a variety of settings.
Scientists at a NASA Research Partnership Center were looking for a way to scrub the air of ethylene, which hastens the decay of fruits and flowers and tends to gather around plants in the absence of convection on the space station. They hit on photocatalytic oxidation, whereby titanium dioxide exposed to ultraviolet light reacts with ethylene — or, it turned out, any airborne organic compounds — to oxidize them into harmless byproducts.
Learn more about how NASA helped develop technology that impacts air purification systems within your home's outside environment!