The paper reviews the available technologies for producing photocatalytic active self-cleaning materials based on cement, including concretes and dry building mixtures. Used photocatalytic additives and their influence on the cement system are considered. The applied methods for assessing the photocatalytic activity of self-cleaning cement materials are presented. The compositions of concrete mixtures, their properties, areas and prospects of application are analyzed. The main problems of development, production and application of photocatalytic active self-cleaning materials based on cement are presented. The main directions to increase the self-cleaning ability of photocatalytic active materials based on cement are: optimization of the microstructure of the photocatalyst and the composite with its use in the direction of creating a developed surface of the photocatalyst - hierarchical microstructure; it intensifies the diffusion processes of photocatalytic reaction reagents and increases the contact area photocatalyst with a pollutant; it absorbs and accumulates ultraviolet radiation waves; optimization of the phase composition of titanium dioxide - search for the ratio of the anatase and rutile phases, at which the maximum photocatalytic activity is achieved; choosing of economically feasible method for periodical updating of the surface of concrete products carbonized during operation in order to restore self-cleaning ability.
Compositions and technology for obtaining a photocatalytic composite material (PCM) by deposition of titanium dioxide particles synthesized by the sol–gel method on a silica support of various types (microsilica, gaize and diatomite) have been developed. The properties (chemical and mineral composition, dispersion, specific surface area, porosity, ζ-potential, acid–base properties, and microstructure) of microsilica, gaize and diatomite were studied to assess the effectiveness of using a photocatalytic agent as a carrier. In terms of specific viscosity (ηsp = 45), the concentration of the precursor (tetrabutoxytitanium—TBT) is set at 22 vol. % in a solvent (ethanol), at which it is possible to obtain the maximum amount of dissolved film oligomer without the formation of an aggregate-like precipitate. Modification of the reaction mixture (precursor: ethanol = 1:3) by replacing part of the solvent with a Span-60 surfactant/TBT = 1–1.1 made it possible to obtain polydisperse titanium dioxide particles with peak sizes of 43 nm and 690 nm according to laser granulometry data. Taking into account the interaction of titanium complexes with the surface of a silica support, a phenomenological model of the processes of structure formation of a photocatalytic composite material is proposed. By the value of the decomposition of rhodamine B, the photocatalytic activity of the developed composite materials was determined: PCM based on diatomite—86%; PCM based on microsilica—85%; PCM based on gaize—57%.
The paper presents the process of sol-gel synthesis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, the peculiarities of the influence of component composition (titanium precursor content, solvent and stabilizer − surfactant) on the properties of sol and powder obtained on its basis. As a result of the study, the nature of the influence of the type and content of the surfactant in the solution of tetrabutoxytitanium in ethanol on the size of the synthesized particles of titanium dioxide was revealed. The optimal composition of the reaction mixture of TiO–R sol was obtained and the optimal ratio of tetrabutoxytitanium and ethyl alcohol was revealed using which a material with a high content of nanosized titanium dioxide was obtained.
The paper considers the dependences of the properties of self-cleaning fine-grained concrete on the composition of the concrete mixture: the ratio of sand to white Portland cement, the content of plasticizer, the content of photocatalytic composite material. The photocatalytic composite material (PCM) is a diatomite-based anatase-silica material obtained by sol-gel deposition of nanoscale TiO2 of anatase modification on a silica carrier. The investigated properties of fine-grained concrete were: average density, compressive strength and self-cleaning ability, which was determined by evaluating the photocatalytic decomposition of an organic dye – Rhodamine B. It was shown that an increase in the content of PCM to increase the ability of the coating to self-cleaning leads to a loosening of the structure of fine-grained concrete, but this can be successfully offset by an increase in the content of plasticizer, which additionally improves the distribution of the photocatalytic agent in the cement-sand matrix. An increase in the proportion of sand and the content of plasticizer also contribute to an increase in the ability to self-cleaning. The pozzolan activity of the PCM provides an increase in the strength of concrete. The results of comparing the self-cleaning ability of fine-grained concrete of various compositions indicate a high photocatalytic activity of samples with PCM, which allows its application for creating self-cleaning coatings.
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