Pollution control applications of nano titanium dioxide in the construction industry

Abstract

There is an upsurge in air pollution due to urbanization and industrialization across the globe. This calls for immediate action. Large exterior surfaces of high-rise buildings and civil infrastructure can be utilized to one’s advantage by applying nanocoatings that are capable of alleviating the concentration of air pollutants in the surrounding atmosphere. Few nanomaterials with their photocatalytic property can degrade some of the air pollutants such as oxides of Nitrogen (NO_x) and Sulfur (SO_x) to their respective non-harmful counterparts thereby bringing down the concentration of actual pollutants. Most of the metropolitan cities which have high-rise buildings are the ones that have more concentration of pollutants. Therefore, these buildings can be employed for coating Nanomaterials on the exterior surface of these buildings. Nano photocatalysts can be either incorporated onto a surface as a coating or into the outer layer of the building during construction. The most commonly used semi-conductor nano-photocatalyst for this purpose is nano Titanium Dioxide (TiO₂) or its composites. such as silica-doped TiO₂.

This review paper consolidates various methods of synthesizing TiO₂ and its composites, their characterization, different methods of incorporating nanomaterials onto construction materials, degradation mechanism as indicated in figure 1Athe experimental setups that are available to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of TiO₂ as shown in figure 1B, the factors affecting the degradation process, real-world application, the gaps in the literature and the future scope.