Activated carbon: This is what activated carbon looks like under an electron microscope. See all of the tiny pits and holes? They increase the particles' surface area, allowing more chemicals to stick to each speck of carbon.Courtesy Air-n-Water Inc.Germs are so small that you can’t see them without a microscope, and the chemical particless that cause bad smells can be even smaller. So how do you clean them out of the air?

Well, odor filters like this one are kind of like a fancy kitchen strainer. Germs and bad smells get caught up in the filter and stay there, while air passes right through. This filter is able to do that because it’s full of something called activated carbon.

Activated carbon is basically charcoal that has been processed and refined. Each tiny speck of activated carbon has thousands of microscopic holes and pits, and when chemicals or germs are pushed through those holes, they stick to the carbon. The air, however, doesn’t stick to the carbon, and it comes out the other side clean and smelling fresh.

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