ENVIRONMENTAL PHOTOCATALYSIS IN AIR AND WATER PURIFICATION AND SELF-CLEANING MATERIALS

摘要

Heterogeneous photocatalysis is a recent discipline particularly well adapted to environmental catalysis since it operates at room temperature by replacing catalyst’s thermo-activation by photoactivation (i.e. replacing phonons by photons). In Environmental Photocatalysis, UV-irradiated titania becomes a total oxidation catalyst in aerated water or in humid air because of the photogeneration of OH° radicals (the 2nd best oxidant after fluorine) according to the equations: (TiO2) + hν → h+ + e- (H2O ⇔ H+ + OH- ) + h+ → H+ + OH°