Abstract
Photocatalysis is one of the most promising processes for treating air and water pollution. Innovative civil engineering materials for environmental depollution by photocatalysis have already been synthesized by incorporating TiO2 or ZnO nanoparticles in cement. This method suffers from two flaws: first, most of the NPs are incorporated into the cement and useless for photocatalysis; second, rain and wind could spread the potentially carcinogenic nanoparticles from the cement surface into nature. Thus, we propose the efficient synthesis of nontoxic and biocompatible ZnO nanostructures solely onto the surface of commercially available concrete and tiling pavements by a low-cost and low-temperature hydrothermal method. Our samples exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity for degrading organic dyes in aqueous media, and dye molecules are commonly used in the pharmaceutical, food, and textile industries. Durability studies showed no loss of efficiency after four photocatalysis experiments. Such supported structures, which are easy to implement onto the varying surfaces of commercially available materials, are promising for integration into civil engineering surfaces for environmental depollution in our daily life.
Highlights
In recent years, water and air pollution caused by industry, urban effluents, and transportation have become a major issue in every urban center
The usual solutions found in the literature are the use of a paint containing the photocatalyst nanoparticles (NPs) or mixing the photocatalyst NPs (TiO2 or ZnO) directly into the concrete[15,16]. Those solutions have disadvantages, as incorporated NPs cannot exhibit their optimal photocatalytic efficiency because they are covered by the concrete or paint, and a photocatalytic process requires the semiconductor surface to be in contact with the medium to purify it[17]. To benefit from their optimal efficiency as photocatalysts for organic compound depollution[18,19], we investigated the direct growth of ZnO nanostructures onto commercially available civil engineering materials
The microstructure of the as-grown ZnO NWs on those substrates was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
Summary
Water and air pollution caused by industry, urban effluents, and transportation have become a major issue in every urban center. Transportation is responsible for local and extended air pollution, as well as soil and water pollution, affecting biodiversity, human health, and climate For those reasons, it is important to treat pollution directly at its source, e.g., directly on roads. Our research group has developed and optimized an inexpensive and straightforward hydrothermal process to grow well-aligned ZnO nanowires (NWs) onto conventional substrates[12,13,14]. Such nanostructures are known to have a high surface-to-volume ratio with a high surface defect density, the latter being of crucial importance for the efficient generation of hydroxyl ions in photocatalysis mechanisms
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