What causes the smell from a sharper image air purifier?
Air purifiers like the one you have work by generating ozone either with ultraviolet light or by corona discharge. The ozone then oxidizes organic substances such as odor or smoke. The smell appears when not all ozone is consumed in it’s air purifying duties. Corona discharge is a type of electrical conduction that generally occurs at or near atmospheric pressure in gases. A relatively strong electric field is needed. Ultraviolet light splits O2 molecules into oxygen atoms which then react with more O2 to form ozone. Sources: http://www.ozoneapplications.com/products/Residential/q&a_ozone.
