In recent years our group has highlighted the importance of trees and plants in public and recreation parks in large mega cities. However, we are interested in developing "green shields" to be able to place windows, air conditioning inlets, doors, and other openings in hospitals and schools. Thank you if you can send recommendations or articles that show strategies for building "walls with plants" that hinder PM and nanoparticles.
Dear Luis,
Please, study this review paper and thesis:
Cummings BE and Waring M S (2020) Potted Plants Do Not Improve Indoor Air Quality: a Review and Analysis of Reported VOC Removal Efficiencies. J Exp Sci Env Epidemiol 30:253-261.
Braun, E., Cooper, T., and Surguine, M. Clearing the air: impacts of plants on air particulates in passive ventilation. 2020. University of Oregon.
Ref Type: Report
The situation, of course, is more complicated about particles, but the paper/report might give you some hints.
Kind regards,
Peder
It is now known that several indoor plants absorb not only CO2, but also nitrous oxydes and volatile organic compounds. They also emit VOC (essential oils in particular) that interact with pollutants. The NASA published a book at Penguin in 1997on this issue (Wolverton B. C. How to grow fresh air). However, I have no information about particules, and the microorganism associated with plants may even produce microparticles. This is about plants located indoors.
I don't see how plants growing on the building envelope can prevent the entry of PM indoors. Maybe plants with sticky leaves would fix the PMs falling on them, but not the PMs going through an open window.
It is however possible that a "green wall" emits more PMs than a nude wall.
The following recent publications are referring to PM2.5 decreasing by indoor plants. Even though they exhibit limitations for short time period monitoring, they might be helpful for your research:
1. Cao, Y.; Li, F.; Wang, Y.; Yu, Y.; Wang, Z.; Liu, X.; Ding, K. Assisted Deposition of PM2.5 from Indoor Air by Ornamental Potted Plants. Sustainability 2019, 11, 2546
2. Jeongeun Ryu, Jeong Jae Kim, Hyeokjun Byeon, Taesik Go, Sang Joon Lee, Removal of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) via atmospheric humidity caused by evapotranspiration, Environmental Pollution, Volume 245, 2019, Pages 253-259
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