Photocatalytic Suspension for Road Pavements: Investigation on Wearing and Contaminant Effects

摘要

Photocatalytic technologies offer a unique benefit to road materials due to their potential to support depollution reactions of nitrogen oxide (NO_x) and their versatility. The aims of this research were to investigate the wear resistance of photocatalytic asphalt slabs under repeated loads and to quantify the effect of contaminants such as dirt (fine particles), salt (sodium chloride) and deicing solution (salt plus water) on photocatalytic effectiveness. Accelerated loading tests (wheel tracking test) and skid resistance (British pendulum test) allowed the characterization of slab behavior over different steps of cycles. A specific laboratory setup was adopted to measure the reduction in concentration of pollutants as nitrogen oxide in accordance with European standards. Results showed a decrease over progressive load cycles in depolluting effectiveness and skid resistance of photocatalytic slabs, and deicing solution had the largest negative effect. The negative impact was largely dependent on the number of cycle and the contaminant type.