Green plants treated with TiO2 to remove contaminants in air

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10244764-B2
Application number	US-201715477686-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 3, 2017
Priority date	Apr 3, 2017
Publication date	Apr 2, 2019
Grant date	Apr 2, 2019

Abstract

A method of reducing contaminants in air, including applying titanium dioxide-containing growth media to at least one of a Myrtus communis plant root, stem, and leaf, and growing the plant. The growth media is a liquid growth media, a gel growth media, or both. The plant is then exposed to contaminant-containing air. The contaminant is CO 2 , SO 2 , formaldehyde, CO, benzene, toluene, xylene, ethyl benzene, or a combination thereof. The contaminant concentration in the air is reduced relative to a contaminant concentration in the air prior to the exposing. A plant portion having a portion of a Myrtus communis plant comprising an infused titanium dioxide is also described. The portion is at least one of a root, stem, or leaf. In a closed environment, the plant portion reduces the concentration of a contaminant in the air in the closed environment.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of reducing contaminants in air, comprising:
applying a titanium dioxide-containing growth media to at least one of a root, stem, and leaf of a Myrtus communis plant, and growing the Myrtus communis plant, wherein the growth media is a liquid growth media, a gel growth media, or both to form a titanium dioxide-containing Myrtus communis plant;
exposing the titanium dioxide-containing Myrtus communis plant to contaminant-containing air comprising at least one contaminant selected from the group consisting of CO 2 , SO 2 , formaldehyde, CO, benzene, toluene, xylene, and ethyl benzene, wherein a contaminant concentration in the contaminant-containing air is reduced by 10% to 98% relative to a contaminant concentration in the contaminant-containing air prior to the exposing.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the titanium dioxide-containing growth media has a titanium dioxide concentration in the range of 0.5 ppm to 10 ppm.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the contaminant in the contaminant-containing air is formaldehyde, and a formaldehyde concentration of 0.2 ppm to 0.3 ppm is reduced to 10 ppb to 200 ppb after the exposing for a duration of 4 hours to 8 hours.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the contaminant in the contaminant-containing air is a combination of CO 2 , SO 2 , formaldehyde, CO, benzene, toluene, xylene, and ethyl benzene having a combined contaminant concentration of 300 ppb to 400 ppb that is reduced to 10 ppb to 290 ppb after the exposing for a duration of 4 hours to 8 hours.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contaminant concentration in the contaminant-containing air is in the range of 1 ppb to 100 ppm prior to the exposing.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the contaminant concentration in the contaminant-containing air is 0.25 ppb to 50 ppm after the exposing.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the titanium dioxide-containing Myrtus communis plant is exposed to the contaminant-containing air for 24 hours to 96 hours.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the titanium dioxide-containing growth media does not contain potassium silicate.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the titanium dioxide is a nanoparticle.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein an average particle size of the nanoparticle is 10 nm to 25 nm.

Assignees

• Univ Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal

Inventors

• Salama Khaled Fikry

Classifications

• A01N3/00

  Preservation of plants or parts thereof, e.g. inhibiting evaporation, improvement of the appearance of leaves {or protection against physical influences such as UV radiation using chemical compositions} (preservation or chemical ripening of fruit or vegetables A23B7/00); Grafting wax · CPC title

• A01N59/16 Primary

  Heavy metals; Compounds thereof · CPC title

• Y02P60/247

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• A01H5/02

  Flowers · CPC title

• A01N25/12

  Powders or granules (A01N25/26 takes precedence) · CPC title