Abstract
An innovative and sustainable approach to deal with the environmental pollution is the use of self-cleaning cement based materials for the construction of masonry structures and buildings in the urban cities. The photocatalytic activity, imparted to the self-cleaning cement by incorporating photocatalytic materials, has a significant role to combat the menace of urban air pollution. The most widely used photocatalytic material for formulation of self-cleaning cement is the nanosized-TiO2 (n-TiO2). However, the utilization of n-TiO2 for the synthesis of self-cleaning cement has numerous disadvantages such as higher cost, nano-toxicity and agglomeration in the cementitious matrix, which are the huge barriers in the commercialization of self-cleaning cement. In order to avoid the aforementioned drawbacks, the present work involves a study on the use of surface-fluorinated microsized-TiO2 (m-TiO2) and calcined dolomite for the formulation of self-cleaning cement. The surface-fluorinated m-TiO2, calcined dolomite, and the formulated self-cleaning cement were characterized using DRS, XRD, FE-SEM, EDS, XPS, SEM, BET analysis, and EDXRF. The self-cleaning property of the as-prepared self-cleaning cement was evaluated using the methylene blue (MB) test. The depolluting ability of the formulated self-cleaning cement was assessed through continuous NOx removal test. The antimicrobial activity of the self-cleaning cement was appraised using the method of zone of inhibition. The as-prepared self-cleaning cement obtained by uniform mixing of 87% clinker, 10% calcined dolomite, and 3% surface-fluorinated m-TiO2 showed a remarkable self-cleaning property by providing 53.9% degradation of the coated MB dye; noteworthy depolluting ability by removing 5.5% of NOx from the air; and significant antimicrobial property by inactivating the B. subtiltis bacteria.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support of all kind obtained from Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar-144011 (India). The authors are also thankful to M/s JK White Cement Works, Gotan (Rajasthan), India for providing thrust to initiate this research work.
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Saini, A., Ratan, J.K. Formulation and evaluation of surface-fluorinated microsized-TiO2 based self-cleaning cement: characterization, self-cleaning, depollution and antimicrobial study. Chem. Pap. 76, 3201–3214 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-022-02093-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-022-02093-4