Abstract
The use of titanium dioxide in concrete block pavements is a promising approach to reduce air pollution in the roadside. When TiO2 is used as an additive of cement concrete or mortar, it is not dispersed uniformly due to agglomeration between particles causing the degradation of photocatalytic reaction. To improve the photocatalytic performance of TiO2, the Nano SiO2-TiO2 (NST) has been developed by coating TiO2 with SiO2 as a support using the sol-gel method. The environmental performance of concrete blocks incorporating NST as an additive was evaluated using both laboratory and full-scale chamber experiments. It was observed from laboratory environment chamber testing that the NO reduction efficiency of concrete blocks with 4% NST ranged from 16.5 to 59.1%, depending on the UV intensity. Results of the full-scale chamber test on NST concrete blocks indicated that the NO and SO2 reduction efficiencies were 22.3% and 14.4% at a 564 W/m2 of solar radiation, respectively. It was found that the increase in UV intensity and solar radiation had a positive effect on decreasing NO and SO2 concentration. In the future, the NST will be applied at in-service photocatalytic block pavements to validate the environmental performance in field conditions.
Highlights
With economic development led by rapid industrial growth, the air pollution has been steadily increasing, due to soot and sulfur oxides from factories and vehicle exhaust emissions, and it has become a rising common interest around the world [1,2]
This study evaluated the environmental effectiveness of incorporating Nano SiO2-TiO2 (NST) as an additive to concrete blocks
Prepared concrete block samples were evaluated for the NOx reduction performance using laboratory and full-scale chamber experiments
Summary
With economic development led by rapid industrial growth, the air pollution has been steadily increasing, due to soot and sulfur oxides from factories and vehicle exhaust emissions, and it has become a rising common interest around the world [1,2]. It is expected that concrete products with excellent performance can be produced by mixing TiO2 with mortar and concrete When it comes to road structures, it will be very effective in preventing air pollution, as TiO2 directly adsorbs and removes harmful gases emitted from vehicles. When the concrete material with TiO2 is applied to the road facilities, it will be very effective in reducing air pollution by directly absorbing and removing the harmful gases from vehicle emissions [12,13]. TiO2 of nano size with a large specific surface area was not dispersed due to agglomeration between particles, but rather was present as aggregates on the surface of the concrete block, thereby reducing the photocatalytic reaction [17]. The environmental performance of the concrete blocks was evaluated based on the ability to remove air pollutants using laboratory and full-scale environmental chamber experiments
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