nanoPhotoMat · Development of nano-Photocatalytic Materials for Indoor Air Purification and Odour Elimination
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-06-05 → 2019-06-04
- EU contribution
- €145,846
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-SE
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Development of nano-Photocatalytic Materials for Indoor Air Purification and Odour Elimination
Air pollutants severely affect people’s life quality and life expectancy. Long time exposure to air pollution causes serious health problems, such as heart diseases, cancer, asthma, allergy, irritation and lost productivity. Indoor air contaminants arise from both outside and indoor sources. Indoor volatile organic components (iVOCs) that were generated each time household and cleaning products are used, continuously accumulated inside due to poor ventilation. Considering we typically spend 90% of our time at interior places, we are faced with a serious problem in our daily life. So, it has been crucially important that recent technological advances should bring innovative solutions to eliminate the indoor air pollutants as well as odour riddance. Our aim is to develop an air purifier for which elimination of the indoor volatile organic compounds (iVOCs) is the main purpose. There are several air purifiers available in the global consumer market, but only a few of them are able to mineralize VOCs. The ones which implemented photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) technology are promoted generation of ozone and led to release of by-products which are more hazardous than the initial reactants. In this project, we studied the PCO technology with the purpose of understanding the degradation mechanisms of iVOCs and we worked on optimization of the system towards preventing the release of hazardous by-products. - The main objective of this study was to develop an air purifier with PCO technology where indoor VOCs degraded to water and carbon dioxide. - The state-of-the-art synthesis of well-developed mesoporous TiO2-based photocatalysts with specific structural properties, such as high surface area (106 m²/g) and large pore volume (0.2 cm³/g) was achieved. - By doping TiO2 nanoparticles with a cheap earth metal, Fe, we could prepare visible-light active photocatalytic materials instead of conventional UV-active photocatalytic materials. - Low-power and eco-friendly (ozone free) light sources were selected to activate the photocatalytic materials at visible region. - Different configurations for PCO system were examined to provide uniform air flow and effective illumination over catalyst surfaces. - We investigated the reaction mechanisms of different types of chemicals (aliphatics, aromatics etc.) on two different crystal surfaces of anatase TiO2 that were An(101) and An(001), - We derived PCO reaction pathways for formaldehyde, and benzene oxidation with the help of DFT studies. Reaction enthalpies and activation barriers of the each reaction steps were calculated. - Performance tests of the PCO units were conducted at room conditions where the suppressing effect of high humidity on PCO reaction was observed.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Pollutants released directly to the air are particularly harmful compared to soil and water pollutants. These pollutants severely affect people’s life quality and life expectancy. Indoor air purification at highly populated urban areas is technically challenging, because indoor air contaminants arise from both outside and indoor sources. The most hazardous indoor pollutants are volatile organic components, toxic inorganics, dust, bacteria, pollen and mold spores. Conventional ventilation brings outdoor air pollution inside the buildings and thus increases energy consumed for cleaning per room. Adapting new technological advances will help meeting requirements of a compact, reliable, and eco-friendly design. The main objective of this proposal is therefore to develop the next generation air purifiers where photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) technologies will allow elimination of a variety of hazardous indoor air pollutants, and bad odour caused by such pollutants, when illuminated by low-power light sources on-the-fly. The proposed project composes of four different phases: the state-of-the-art design of photocatalysts, selection of proper illuminating source, configuration of PCO system, and preparation of the first prototype. In this study, we will address the limited work performed within the field hitherto, such as the mechanism of catalyst deactivation, efficiencies of odour removal, generation of by-products, electron-hole recombination phenomenon, and the ways of providing anti-bacterial/good hygiene properties. We will carry out an in-depth investigation on optimization of PCO air purification system within an interdisciplinary work at Arçelik Central R&D. After designing a viable configuration, we will focus on the production of a PCO air purifier prototype. In accordance with Arçelik Group’s policy and vision, our final goal is to ready the highly energy-efficient, low-noise, and reliable PCO air purifier prototype for the product launch in the global market.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- ARCELIK A.S. · ISTANBULCoordinatorTürkiye
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union