Investigation of TiO2 Photocatalytic Properties of Concrete Samples with Dielectric Constant Applications

Abstract

There is a going interest to reduce emission and improve air quality of the environment through the use of titanium dioxide (TiO2) topical treatments. TiO2 is regarded as one of the most efficient and environment-friendly ultraviolet light-sensitive materials for the photocatalytic degradation of various pollutants. The effort to reduce nitrogen dioxides in the ambient air is proposed to be implemented on the surfaces of streets and sidewalks. Two methods are used to quantify photocatalytic performance: direct and the indirect. The direct method measures the difference of NO concentrations before and after surface treatment, but this method may be highly inaccurate due to the influence of various parameters, time, and costs. The indirect method, on the other hand, quantifies the photocatalysis performance by using the measured surface dielectric to estimate the amount of oxidized NOx byproducts that have accumulated on the surface. This approach is entirely non-destructive and constitutes a new protocol to assess the field-effectiveness of photocatalytic topical treatments based on reproducible and logical monitoring procedures. Finally, mass balance computation was used to validate the effectiveness of this protocol and check the accuracy of the proposed method.