Evaluation of the particle aerosolization from n-TiO2 photocatalytic nanocoatings under abrasion

Abstract

A parametric study on the release of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles from two commercial photocatalytic nanocoatings is carried out. For this, abrasion tests are performed on them. The formed aerosols are characterized by their number concentration, particle size distribution, individual particle shape, size, and chemical composition. The two nanocoatings appear to exhibit contrastingly opposite behavior with respect to the number concentration of the released particles. Having irregular shapes, the released particles are found to have unimodal size distributions with 1.5-3.5% (in mass) of Ti content. However, no free nanoparticles of TiO2 were found. Distinct phases during the particle number concentration evolution with time are also discussed and evaluated. Two quantities - (ΔC/Δt) I and T II - are identified as the important indicators to qualitatively measure the resistance strength and hence the concentration of the released particles from a nanocoating during stress application. © 2014 Neeraj Shandilya et al.