In this post I have explained the construction of a car air ionizer circuit which can be used for cleansing the atmosphere of car interior from smoke, pollution, dust particles, bad odor, pollen particles etc. The circuit was requested by Mr. Edalcor Zuproc.
The Circuit Concept
In one of my previous posts we saw how simply a home air ionizer circuit can be built using a handful of capacitors and diodes. The unit works directly on our domestic mains outlet due to the availability of mains power.
The same circuit can be converted to function as a car air ionizer circuit by adding a converter stage to the above circuit.
The converter stage is a simple square wave inverter which converts 12V DC into the required 220V AC for operating the ionizer circuit.
As explained in my previous article, the basic design of the ionizer is taken from the Cockroft-Walton Ladder Network which involves a series. parallel connection of many diodes and high voltage capacitors.
How it Works
When powered with mains voltage the arrangement creates a push pull effect inside the circuit which results in stepping up of the voltage across the subsequent stages. At the far end of the ladder network this stepped up voltage may be as high as 4kV.
For obtaining the fundamental ionizing effect which is supposed to be having many health benefits the stepped up voltage should reach about -4kv.
At this potential, the free end of the radiator tip release negative ions by losing an electron into the atmosphere.
These ions being negatively charged attract everything that's neutral or positively charged.
Dust particles or any suspended particle in the air is by nature a neutral element and therefore when these particles collide with the negatively charged ions, they instantly stick with these ions.
The ions continue colliding with the atmospheric particles until each ion become loaded with these unwanted particles and become too heavy to float. When this happens the ions either get attached to the nearest wall or drop on the floor.
In this way all pollutants are neatly cleansed away from the air by the ionizer unit.
How to Build this Car Inonizer
In the diagram below we can see the circuit to be made up of two distinct stages. The section at the extreme left is the inverter stage, while the section on the right of the transformer is the ionizer stage.
The two stages should be constructed separately on two different boards and tested separately before integrating together.
The ionizer circuit stage which consists mainly of capacitors and diodes looks to be an easy arrangement to assemble, however the entire configuration is quite sensitive to bad solder or leakages through flux deposits.
Even a slightest bit of mistake can render the circuit unresponsive.
All the connections should be made with utmost care, making sure there's no dry solder or flux deposits in between the joined tracks.
The ionizer stage may be tested by powering it with 220V AC at home.
Be extremely careful as the entire circuit is directly linked with mains potential and can inflict lethal shock if touched without precaution. The procedures are explained in this room air ionizer article
The inverter part is much easier as the design includes just a pair of transistor and a few resistors. The transformer is a small 12-0-12V 500 mA type. After making it, power it with a DC 12V source and check the output, it should provide around 220V AC.
For the final testing, the above inverter output AC may be applied to the input of the ionizer circuit for acquiring the required ionizing effect of release of ions across the extreme tip of the ionizer circuit.
Circuit Diagram
