Remediation of Fouling on Painted Steel Roofing via Solar Energy Assisted Photocatalytic Self‐Cleaning Technology: Recent Developments and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Rainwater harvesting on rooves is a sustainable solution for global water scarcity. The contamination of roofing materials due to biological organisms and other environmental pollutants limits the utilization of roof harvested rainwater for domestic and industrial applications. Similarly, roof contamination leads to several aesthetic, functional, and environmental concerns highlighting the importance of developing green self‐cleaning technology for roofing applications. Solar‐energy‐driven semiconductor‐based photocatalytic self‐cleaning coatings are a promising approach to minimizing roof contamination against both biological and non‐biological pollutants. However, the development of such technology on painted steel substrates for long‐term outdoor applications has become limited due to the number of challenges are analyzed in this review. Accordingly, challenges, recent developments, and future perspectives of developing and evaluating the performance of photocatalytic self‐cleaning coating systems for roofing applications have been critically reviewed in this article analyzing the research findings of recent studies.