Studies On The Effect Of Indoor Plants On Removing Formaldehyde From Indoor Air

Formaldehyde is a common indoor pollutant. It is very harmful to human body health with long-term, potential and hidden. This dissertation has emphasized on the purge ability and durative of 13 species plant and their leaves for removing formaldehyde, which may lay the scientific foundation in preventing effectively indoor pollution, improving indoor's environmental quality and protecting human body health.The effects of purge formaldehyde of 13 common indoor ornamental plants were studied using fumigate the formaldehyde. And the contents of formaldehyde were identified by GB/T15516.The results indicated that 13 species had rapid and lasting purge ability, which reduced formaldehyde 46.7%～92.8% under the situation of one-time charge in 24 hrs and decreased formaldehyde content to a certain level at beginning of 12 hrs and lasted that level till 72 hrs.The purge of plants consisted of soil-root and leaf purification. Formaldehyde could be absorbed rapidly by soil mass in the initial stage of fumigation and its content was reduced 42.8%～70.0% at the first 4 hrs. The purification of plant leaves belongs to metabolic absorption and was influenced by light factors. There was a positive correlation between the purification of plant leaves and light intensity within a certain range. It was related to a fancy for light of plants themselves. And compared with the purification capacity of the soil, leaves possessed the sustaining purge. Its purification increased continually in 72 hrs fumigation.According to purge quantities of formaldehyde of unit leaf area, the purificationabilities of 13 species were identified from strong to weak: Syngonium podophillum, Pandanus veitchii, Dieffenbachia picta > Sansevieria trifasciata 'Laurentii', Aglaonema crispum 'Silver Queen', Chamaedorea elegans, Scindapsus aureus, Spathiphyllum kochii, Chlorophytum comosum, Dracena deremensis 'Virens Compacta' > Dracaena cambodiana, Schefflera octophylla, Aloe vera var. chinensis. Their quantities of absorbing formaldehyde were more than 2mg/m~2, 1～2mg/m~2 and less than 1mg/m~2, respectively.