The negative impact of the presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) on indoor air quality has motivated researchers to develop different air treatment technologies. Although, building mechanical ventilation systems can provide a comfortable thermal indoor environment, they are not capable of removing the VOCs effectively. Thus, other components must be integrated with them to be able to carry out this function. Plasmabased air treatment techniques are a series of processes in which a high voltage discharge is used for elimination of VOCs. Development of plasma-based methods, and their capabilities for chemical gas decomposition, has motivated designers to employ these methods for indoor air purification. This paper addresses the outcomes of a critical literature review on plasma-based air cleaner technologies, thermal to non-thermal plasma and plasma catalyst, and their application for indoor environment VOCs removal. The reaction mechanism, effect of different parameters on the performance of the method, and abilities and limitations of these methods are discussed. Different types of reactors and the most common used catalysts are classified. The role of the presence of the catalyst in improving the non-thermal plasma efficiency is reviewed. Finally, the scope of the future work to enhance the performance of this method for application in sustainable buildings is discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.