Ozone removal on building material surface: A literature review

Ozone is a reactive gas that can have negative health effects on human. Building materials can be significant sinks for indoor ozone, owing to the irreversible heterogeneous reactions between ozone and material surfaces. Therefore, the ozone removal on material surfaces is crucial for evaluating indoor ozone concentrations and human exposure. This paper presents a review of previous investigations on ozone removal on building materials. The reaction probabilities of common indoor building materials range from 10−8 to 10−4, and depend on the material chemical compounds and surface characteristics. The surface-treated materials are probably more important than the underlying material substrate in determining ozone deposition velocities. Ozone removal on material surface is also associated with the fluid mechanics near the surface. Reactions between ozone and unsaturated organic compounds that constituting or adsorbed on material surfaces may result in oxidized by-products yields, while inorganic materials usually exhibit negligible by-products yields. Besides, the ozone surface removal on building materials under various conditions, i.e. ozone concentrations, air flow conditions, relative humidity and temperature, are discussed. Ozone removal on building materials after short-term and long-term exposure is presented.