Self-cleaning measurements on tiles manufactured with micro-sized photoactive TiO2

Heterogeneous photocatalysis is a rapidly developing field in environmental engineering. It has a great potential to cope with the increasing pollution in the air. The addition of a photocatalyst to ordinary building materials such as tiles, concrete, paints, creates environmental friendly materials by which air pollution or pollution of the surface itself can be controlled and diminished. This work reports the results of the laboratory research, especially carried out towards air purifying action and self-cleaning measurements. In particular the research was focused on the study of the photocatalytic behavior of industrially prepared tiles produced starting from commercial micro-sized TiO2. Air purification action has been investigated through NOx degradation tests. On the contrary, the degradation of pollution at the surface, also called as self-cleaning action, is verified by the degradation of two different organic dyes: Rhodamine B (red color) and Metanil yellow (yellow).