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Conservation and restoration of historical structures are still a challenge to modem practitioners even if significant research advances have occurred in the last decades. Significant advances have been made in non-destructive testing, mechanical characterization, tools for advanced numerical analysis, knowledge on traditional materials and techniques, and innovative materials and techniques. In the paper, Monastery of Jeró nimos in Lisbon, Portugal is adopted as a case study for structural safety assessment. A first discussion is held on the difficulties related to the need of adopting simplified geometries of the model. After a set of sophisticated non-linear failure analyses, a second discussion is held with respect to the consequences associated with the results obtained. Finally, additional in situ testing and monitoring are carried out in a truly iterative process of knowledge accumulation before defining any remedial measures.

Titanium dioxide (TiO 2) absorbs only a small fraction of incoming sunlight in the visible region thus limiting its photocatalytic efficiency and concomitant photocatalytic ability. The large-scale application of TiO 2 nanoparticles has been limited due to the need of using an ultraviolet excitation source to achieve high photocatalytic activity. The inclusion of foreign chemical elements in the TiO 2 lattice can tune its band gap resulting in an absorption edge red-shifted to lower energies enhancing the photocatalytic performance in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this research work, TiO 2 nanoparticles were doped with iron powder in a planetary ball-milling system using stainless steel balls. The correlation between milling rotation speeds with structural and morphologic characteristics, optical and magnetic properties, and photocatalytic abilities of bare and Fedoped TiO 2 powders was studied and discussed.

h i g h l i g h t s Photocatalytic, superhydrophobic and self-cleaning capabilities were promoted on asphalt mixtures. AC 6 and AC 14 mixtures were coated with TiO 2 and/or ZnO aqueous solutions by spraying. Physicochemical and morphological properties of bitumen samples were evaluated by FTIR and AFM. New pavement surface capabilities assessed with Water Angle Contact and Photocatalytic Efficiency tests. No deterioration was guaranteed for AC 14 TiO 2 , AC 14 TiO 2 ZnO, AC 6 TiO 2 and AC 6 TiO 2 ZnO solutions.

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