Real time purification of contaminated common air is an unsolved consumer health problem inside residences and the workplace, and outside air pollution by industry and transportation. Currently popular consumer grade electrostatic air filters accumulate suspended contaminants onto accumulation plates which require subsequent disposal or cleaning of the highly concentrated contaminates, a maintenance requirement that creates new jeopardy to consumer health. Disclosed are a method and apparatus with several embodiments that structurally eradicate suspended particulates after they have been electrostatically migrated to a hollow, activated dismantling rod. The dismantling rod is typically composed of a durable, UV transmitting material, such as tetrafluoroethylene, or a current carrying metal mesh coated with tetrafluoroethylene, and further over-coated with active photocatalytic material that is energized to create on its surface powerful dismantling agents, including hydroxyl radicals, from natural ambient air elements. Microorganisms, smoke particles, industrial pollutants, odor molecules, and allergens are structurally dissociated into harmless protein fragments and natural molecules when they encounter the dismantling grid purifying agents. The decontamination phenomenon is amplified by imparting, or enhancing, either a negative or positive electrostatic charge to the suspended particles, as they enter the device, and using that to migrate the particles to the activated dismantling rod containing an internal, oppositely charged attraction screen. The method can be used to eradicate particles, including lethal pathogens, that may have a naturally occurring negative, positive, or electroneutral charge. Both contaminants and suspended water molecules are drawn to the dismantling rod in this manner, providing an enhanced supply of raw material from which the decontaminating agents are created. Any trace amounts of ozone molecules produced during the process are also attracted and dissociated back to oxygen within the device. The permanent photocatalytic coating does not require renewal or cleaning, and is designed to use UV energy in a bandwidth that also physically inactivates the replication defenses of passing microorganisms until they can be dismantled, whether in the first pass on during a subsequent air exchange pass. None of the powerful dismantling agents escape the device because of their short half lives; once their job is done all return to the natural elements from which they were made, creating no environmental harm. The method and apparatus are self cleaning and maintenance free.