Self-cleaning and de-pollution efficacies of photocatalytic architectural membranes

Progress in Studies of Surface Nanotextures and Coatings with Nanomaterials on Glass for Anti-Dust Functionality

“…The main methods for producing dust-proof and easy-cleaning surfaces are: (a) preparing micro-/nanotextures on the substrate surface to reduce the contact area with dust particles [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]; (b) lowering the electrical resistance of the material surface to enhance its anti-static properties and reduce electrostatic attraction to charged dust particles [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]; (c) adding nano-sized active agents to the material surface to reduce the surface free energy and reduce the adhesion between the substrate and the dust particles [ 26 , 27 , 28 ]; (d) creating a superhydrophobic surface, which enables water droplets rolling across the surface to carry away dust particles [ 29 , 30 , 31 ]; (e) creating a superhydrophilic surface, which removes dust particles from the entire surface by generating a uniform water film on the substrate [ 32 , 33 , 34 ]; and (f) creating a photocatalytic surface, which decomposes organic dust particles on the surface by adding a photocatalyst to the coating [ 35 , 36 , 37 ]. Figure 1 shows an illustration of the strategies used to prevent dust accumulation and adhesion.…”

Durability of high reflective materials designed for building envelopes

“…The results found were latter used for the development of an accelerated test [11] that became a standard method [17]. Other studies of natural ageing have also been carried out by the group in several climate conditions of the USA and Canada [10,18].…”

“…As alternatives to mitigate the UHIE, passive technologies have been studied in the past decades, such as the application of materials with high reflectance and high emittance, which is the ability to reflect the biggest fraction of solar radiation, and the ability that describes how fast a material can release the absorbed heat to the environment, respectively. These materials, known as "cool surfaces" (CS), are usually applied as "cool roofs", but have also been developed for several applications, with examples including wall coatings [4], pavements [5], clay tiles [6], cool colourful coatings [7,8], and self-cleaning products [9,10]. According to [11], increasing 0.25 of the roof's albedo between the latitudes 45°N and 45°S could prevent the emission of 90Gt of CO2, which is equivalent to 3 years of the global emission rate.…”

Promises and Challenges in Photocatalysis

“…Laboratory studies can take no account of the cost, catalyst recycle, energy consumption, environmental protection, and other issues, but only to prove the feasibility and mechanism of the photocatalytic system. However, in the case of amplifying industrial application, there are various uncontrollable factors in the actual production process, and the preparation conditions of the catalysts will not be as controllable and stable as in the laboratory (Tang et al, 2021). Therefore, the development of economical, feasible, and stable large-scale preparation methods is the key to realize the industrial application of photocatalytic systems.…”