Abstract
The removal of indoor and outdoor air pollutants is crucial to prevent environmental and health issues. Photocatalytic building materials are an energy-sustainable technology that can completely oxidize pollutants, improving in situ the air quality of contaminated sites. In this work, different photoactive TiO2 catalysts (anatase or modified anatase) and amounts were used to formulate photocatalytic paints in replacement of the normally used TiO2 (rutile) pigment. These paints were tested in two different experimental systems simulating indoor and outdoor environments. In one, indoor illumination conditions were used in the photoreactor for the oxidation of acetaldehyde achieving conversions between 37 and 55%. The other sets of experiments were performed under simulated outdoor radiation for the degradation of nitric oxide, resulting in conversions between 13 and 35%. This wide range of conversions made it difficult to directly compare the paints. Thus, absorption, photonic, and quantum efficiencies were calculated to account for the paints photocatalytic performance. It was found that the formulations containing carbon-doped TiO2 presented the best efficiencies. The paint with the maximum amount of this photocatalyst showed the highest absorption and photonic efficiencies. On the other hand, the paint with the lowest amount of carbon-doped TiO2 presented the highest value of quantum efficiency, thus becoming the optimal formulation in terms of energy use.
Highlights
The air quality can affect people’s health and the environment in different means (Fiore et al, 2015)
The last claim is supported by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of 18TiO2-C paint coating that revels an increase in the surface Ti/O ratio from 0.011 to 0.015 after the irradiation curing
Different commercially available TiO2 powders were employed in the development of photocatalytic paint formulations
Summary
The air quality can affect people’s health and the environment in different means (Fiore et al, 2015). The short-term effects of the exposure to polluted air include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, nausea, and allergic reactions. Among the long-term effects, respiratory syndromes, heart disease, and cancer can be mentioned (Guillerm and Cesari, 2015). The air of an indoor environment can be polluted basically in two ways: (i) the pollutant is generated or released inside the room and accumulated due to a poor ventilation and (ii) the outside generated contaminant that enters the room through open doors or windows and the ventilation system. Outdoor air pollution is not less hazardous, Photocatalytic Paints Efficiencies being the main environmental risk to health according to the WHO and contributing to climate change, too
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