Effect on Reduction of Harmful Substances by Using Porous Material with Meso-pores

Japanese current houses become highly airtight for energy saving, but indoor air tends to be very wet or dry. And release and build-up of formaldehyde and other injurious volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from artificial materials have led to new health-related problems, known as "Sick House Syndrome". To solve these problems, the adsorption properties of formaldehyde and other harmful gases to ECOCARAT which was a meso-porous material and had humidity controlling ability were measured. As a result, it was cleared that the ECOCARAT had superior adsorption property compared to wallpapers and plaster boards. Especially, the adsorption ability of formaldehyde was equivalent to the ventilation frequency of 1.5 times per hour. So it has been expected that an application of the ECOCARAT could save energy for air conditioning without deteriorating indoor air.