Development of Photocatalytic 3D-Printed Cementitious Mortars: Influence of the Curing, Spraying Time Gaps and TiO2 Coating Rates

Abstract

This work evaluated the photocatalytic activity of 3D-printed cementitious mortar specimens functionalized with TiO2 nanoparticles to obtain a multifunctional and smart concrete. This research aims to assess the influence of different parameters related to the functionalization process such as adsorption, coating time gaps, and coating rates on the degradation efficiency of the functionalized cementitious specimens. Each specimen was evaluated under the degradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) in an aqueous solution using a sun-light simulation. The obtained results showed a decrease in adsorption (under dark condition) with increasing the sample curing age. The highest photocatalytic efficiency was observed for coated samples aged 7 days. By increasing the coating rates, the photocatalytic efficiency is enhanced. Nonetheless, regardless of the coating rates, all the specimens showed an increase in photocatalytic efficiency for longer time periods of light exposition, i.e., after 8 h of irradiation.

Photocatalytic performance of textiles coated with titanium dioxide-reduced graphene oxide system for degradation of crude petroleum under similar solar irradiation

“…It was forced to circulate continuously in the reactor by the action of a peristaltic pump at a constant rate, thus allowing a uniform distribution of Rh-B solution over the entire substrate. The light irradiation was artificially provided by a 300 W OSRAM lamp simulating solar radiation, which is commonly used in literature for different purposes [56-60] including for photocatalysis [61][62][63][64][65][66], and its light spectrum can be found in [56]. More details of this procedure and images of the photoreactor can be found in previous works [53,67].…”

Photocatalysis of functionalised 3D printed cementitious materials

“…In this work, the surface coating methodology was selected to functionalised the 3D printed cementitious specimens based on previous research studies from the authors on asphalt and cementitious materials [13,15,36,37]. In this method, an atmospheric air compressor (Fig.…”

“…A detailed description of this coating method can be found in Ref. [15]. Various coating rates in the range from 5 mg/cm 2 to 80 mg/cm 2 onto the surface of specimens could be obtained through the coating method based on the given volumes of the nano-TiO 2 aqueous suspension.…”

“…Photocatalytic materials using semiconductors are capable of photodegrading organic and inorganic pollutants [14,15]. Electron-hole pairs are generated with the incidence of a photon with a higher energy than the band gap of the semiconductor, which react with humidity and oxygen producing species with a high ability of oxidation and reduction [16].…”

Functionalization of Smart Recycled Asphalt Mixtures: A Sustainability Scientific and Pedagogical Approach

“…The systems were arranged inside a box, 25 cm below a sunlight simulation lamp with a power intensity of 11 W/m 2 (acquired by a Quantum Photo Radiometer HD9021 Delta Padov). Initially, the samples were conditioned in the dark for 3 h, and then they were exposed to the light for 8 h [9,34,39]. Thus, the initial adsorption and photocatalysis were split, and this phenomenon could be analyzed precisely.…”