TY - JOUR

T1 - The exposure of silhouette plants to radon gas as indoor air purifiers

AU - Kadhim, Nada Farhan

AU - Ridha, Ali A.

AU - Jameel, Athraa Naji

AU - Khalaf, Haym Nazmy Badr

AU - Mostafa, Mostafa Yuness Abdelfatah

N1 - The author would like to thank the Physics Department at the College of Science at Al- Mustansiriyah University for allowing me to use the graduate lab for this research. Not applicable. Not applicable.

PY - 2022/1/1

Y1 - 2022/1/1

N2 - In the present work, radon adsorption by common silhouette plants often used in Iraq for decoration was tested. Two similar groups of silhouette plants were analyzed (twelve pairs of popular indoor plant species). The first was the control group, the second the exposed group. The plants were placed in a semi-closed plastic box with radium point sources have 348.5 kBq activity (uncertainty = 5% at k = 2) as sources of artificial radon gas. The specific activity of the plant leaves was measured with a NaI (Tl) gamma spectroscopy detector. Radon adsorption rate in each species was obtained by adopted a new mathematical relation from the variation of Bi-214 specific activity measured in the leaves of the two plant groups. Plants showed different capability to adsorbed radon from the environment according to their shape and microscopic composition. The present results show that the highest adsorption radon rate calculated in the studied plants is (35.1%), it's detected in dieffenbachia which has oval leaves with a large surface area, thick veins visually, and big holes when examined under optical microscope, while the lowest rate which is (10.1%) was detected in ivy (Potise) that has a small heart-shaped leaves visually with small and compact holes microscopically. In general, indoor plants can adsorb radon gas and purify indoor air with different capability.

AB - In the present work, radon adsorption by common silhouette plants often used in Iraq for decoration was tested. Two similar groups of silhouette plants were analyzed (twelve pairs of popular indoor plant species). The first was the control group, the second the exposed group. The plants were placed in a semi-closed plastic box with radium point sources have 348.5 kBq activity (uncertainty = 5% at k = 2) as sources of artificial radon gas. The specific activity of the plant leaves was measured with a NaI (Tl) gamma spectroscopy detector. Radon adsorption rate in each species was obtained by adopted a new mathematical relation from the variation of Bi-214 specific activity measured in the leaves of the two plant groups. Plants showed different capability to adsorbed radon from the environment according to their shape and microscopic composition. The present results show that the highest adsorption radon rate calculated in the studied plants is (35.1%), it's detected in dieffenbachia which has oval leaves with a large surface area, thick veins visually, and big holes when examined under optical microscope, while the lowest rate which is (10.1%) was detected in ivy (Potise) that has a small heart-shaped leaves visually with small and compact holes microscopically. In general, indoor plants can adsorb radon gas and purify indoor air with different capability.

UR - https://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcAuth=tsmetrics&SrcApp=tsm_test&DestApp=WOS_CPL&DestLinkType=FullRecord&KeyUT=000792897800002

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?partnerID=8YFLogxK&scp=85147995219

U2 - 10.1016/j.matpr.2021.11.321

DO - 10.1016/j.matpr.2021.11.321

M3 - Conference article

VL - 56

SP - 1982

EP - 1988

JO - Materials Today: Proceedings

JF - Materials Today: Proceedings

SN - 2214-7853

ER -