Why choose an air purifier containing activated carbon?

Activated carbon has been popping up in consumer goods for a few years now, and can be found in everything from the practical (toothpaste) to the preposterous (ice cream). One place you’ll see activated carbon is in air purifiers; it’s added as an extra step in addition to other filtration methods such as high-efficiency particulate air filters, better known as HEPA. If you’re looking to fight pollutants, irritants and allergens in your home, looking for a purifier that includes an activated carbon layer is a great way to trap more irritants.coconut shell activated carbon

It may seem like some kind of buzzy health trend, but activated carbon has been used for its purification purposes for a very long time. In many industrial water systems, activated carbon is used as one of the steps in water filtration. It’s also used in plenty of other industrial applications for its purification properties, such as in alcohol distillation and the removal of mercury from the air. Activated carbon’s effectiveness is owed to its porous structure, which creates a greater surface area. The large surface area allows activated carbon to capture a higher amount of particles.

Even though activated carbon is nothing new, there’s still plenty of confusion as to what it is. Is activated carbon the same as activated charcoal? And what exactly makes it “activated”? While “activated charcoal” seems to pop up more on beauty and hygiene products, the terms activated carbon and activated charcoal are actually interchangeable. Activated carbon is “activated” because it is treated in such a way to increase its porousness and surface area, thus improving its effectiveness in adsorbing (no, not absorbing) pollutants.

Having activated carbon can be a great addition to an air purifier system; it can help remove gasses and odors from the air. Activated carbon can remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), such as those found in tobacco smoke, and it can help remove lingering odors in the air. That means that not only will your air be cleaner, it’ll feel cleaner.

There are limits to the uses of activated carbon, which is why you’re likely to see activated carbon as a supplement to other purifying systems such as HEPA. For example, activated carbon does not remove mold or dust mites. But it does trap some VOCs that HEPA can’t catch. That’s why it makes such a great partner to HEPA filters — activated carbon targets some of the pollutants HEPA misses, and HEPA does the same for activated carbon. activated carbon manufacturers