On Saturday, August 6, 2016 at 1:55:31 PM UTC-7, J. Clarke wrote:
In article ,
says...

Back when taverns allowed smoking, there were boxes on the ceiling that
filtered the smoke out. Electrostatic air cleaners, they glommed dust and odors
with ion generators.
Electrostatic air cleaners ionize
and collect organic molecules... and it takes an ion generator to do that (corona
on thin wires).

Source? (For the "collect organic molecules" part, not for the "corona
on thin wires" part. )

Apparently one needs to search for 'electrostatic precipitator' to get any hits.
Wikipedia article leads to this paper, which seems relevant, if somewhat limited in scope
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02786829808965555

To remove volatiles effectively, you need to trap them, either chemically or in a solvent,
at the collecting plates.