system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Lightning produces ozone. Many ionizing air purifiers also produce ozone. Does an electric current exposed to air always produce ozone?

Does this mean that those open coil electric heaters are bad for people with asthma? How do ionizing air purifiers generate ions?
gpt
Molecular Oxygen (dioxygen) is broken into two oxygen atoms with enough energy input (either photon or thermal). One of these excited atoms will then encounter an oxygen molecule in a collision, creating ozone.



Your heaters at home aren't likely to produce any ozone at all as they don't produce a corona discharge (occurs with a large potential on a curvy object). This is the mechanism by which so-called air purifying ionizers produce ions.