Induced self-cleaning properties towards Reactive Red 198 of the cement materials loaded with co-modified TiO2/N,C photocatalysts

Abstract

The possibility of promoting the self-cleaning properties of the cement materials was verified by implementing the obtained nitrogen and carbon co-modified titania-based (TiO2/N,C) photocatalysts into the cement plates. Additionally, unmodified TiO2 (Grupa Azoty Zakłady Chemiczne POLICE S.A., Poland) and a commercial photocatalyst P25 (Evonik Industries AG, Germany) were used as reference materials. The impact of treatment temperature on the physicochemical properties of the obtained TiO2/N,C additives was discussed. The photocatalytic activity of the prepared cement plates was evaluated trough the degradation of a model organic compound (Reactive Red 198) under UV–vis light. It was found that cement plates containing TiO2/N,C photocatalyst calcined at 600 °C temperature exhibited the highest photocatalytic activity. The role of several factors such as crystallinity, phase composition and non-metals presence in the TiO2/N,C additives on the self-clearing properties of the cement samples was also included in the discussion.