Ozone Generator (via Corona Discharge)

Ozone is a very powerful oxidiser and exists as O3. It is responsible for the "clean" or "just rained" smell you smell around electronics occaisonally. It has quite a few use in the laboratory, but most of those uses wont involve the home chemist. It is, however, a great way to de-odorize an entire room. It is used in buildings with smoke dammage, to clear out the smoke smell. Unfortunately, ozone is quite poisonous, but it's easily detectable and very low concentrations. In the atmosphere, it is formed by the sun's rays affecting diatomic oxygen (O2), turning it into ozone (O3). In the laboratory, we don't have a sun, so we're settling for corona discharge to produce it. Below is the method to produce an efficient ozone generator with many capabilities, out of house-hold items and a neon-sign transformer.

Note: My appologies for the flash, I was using my cheap camera since my friend broke my good one.

Materials	Equipment
Neon Sign transformer	Wire strippers
Solid copper wire	Rubber bands
Glass tubing	Screw driver
Aluminum foil
Celophane tape

To start, obtain the materials. In the picture you can see my generic aluminum foil, 18" long glass tube (w/ annealed ends), neon sign transformer (NST), wire, and the tooling. The NST that I am using is rated 9000v @ 30mA. It hurts like hell to get shocked by to put it lightly.

Cut a 12" section of the copper wire, and strip one end. Bend this end over, roughly in half.

Tape this to the center of a medium sized square of aluminum foil. The size isn't too imparative, as you'll be folding it up into a smaller size anyway.

Fold it over the wire, pulling the far side towards the wire. Then fold the sides in to get it close (but not exact) to the diameter of your glass tube. This will form a nice aluminum foil packet

Insert this into the glass tube, and push it down so it conforms to the inside of the glass tube (as well as aluminum can conform to the inside of a tube). Bend the wire underneath the tube, and rubberband it temporarily. Later you will unbend the wire, which will force the aluminum foil packet closer to the glass tube, which is what you want. Secure it very well with tape.

Cut a strip of aluminum foil. This strip must be slightly shorter than the length of the glass tube, and the width should be the same as the diameter of the glass tube. Insert this into the glass tube, then tape one end to the aluminum foil packet you inserted earlier. Pull it taught on the other end, and tape it there. Once it is secured, insert a marble into the tube. Hold your hand on both ends and move the tube back and forth. This will cause the marble to roll over the aluminum foil and cause it to conform to the inside of the tube. A steel ball bearing works better, but a marble will do. Afterwards, you should be left with a tube, with a smooth peice of aluminum coating one side.

Cut a large sheet of aluminum foil. It's width should be shorter than the glass tube by a decent amount. It should also be long enough to go around the tube a few times.

Wrap this around the glass tube, securing it well with tape. Try to get it as smooth as possible

Now, cut a long section of copper wire. If measurements mattered, I would include them. It will have to wrap around the front multiple times, then come all the way to the back, so just calculate for that. Strip a large amount of the insulation on one end. Wrap this around the outer aluminum foil wrap 3-5 times, then you must work it to the back of the tube (the back is the part with the aluminum foil packet). I coiled it around the tube in a few spread-out coils. Secure it all with tape.

This is the important part. Unbend the first wire (going to the packet). Make sure there is adequate distance between it, the outer aluminum foil layer and the second wire. If it's too close, it will arc through the insulation and cause a fire (I know from experience). Strip the ends of both wires, and connect them to your NST. You can use these two wires to stand the tube - which is precisely why I suggested solid copper wire. You may need to stabilize it, using a segment of wire to hold the front up. Insert a one hole stopper into the back of the ozone generator, followed by a short section of glass tube. Hook up an aquarium air pump to this, and you're done.

The aqarium pump is not neccesary if you are just deodorizing a room. However, it will not generate any positive pressure, so you couldn't bubble it into a solution without the aquarium pump. Because of the way I designed it, it generates it's own air current. Enough for you to feel it blowing out the front end. However, you must be careful about getting close to the aluminum foil. The safest way to show this would be to hold a lit match at the back, and watch it suck it in (lightly), then move it to the front and watch it blow the flame away. You can of course build a stand and carrying case for this to your liking.