engleski

Methods of Immobilization of Titanium Dioxide on Rubber Pads Made with Secondary Raw Materials

The main idea of this paper was to modify existing products from recycled rubber (floor covering and cast rubber) in order to get photocatalytically active layer on the product surface. The synergistic action of solar radiation and photocatalysts (semiconductors) triggers redox reactions on the surface of photocatalysts which successfully remove volatile organic compounds, unpleasant odours, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides, ammonia, etc. [1]. The advantage of photocatalysis is cheap, sustainable, and environmentally friendly technology that achieves complete or partial decomposition of pollutants. Therefore, in this paper the experimental results of commercially available TiO2 P25 immobilization on rubber pads by three different methods were presented. The first method of immobilization is the modified sol – gel method. Several such immobilizations were made to compare and select the best ratio and find a way to make a process more environmentally friendly. The second method is to mix the photocatalyst directly into the reference compound of the rubber substrate, and a third method is sieving titanium dioxide powder on a reference rubber substrate before compressing the mixture. Immobilization was validated by SEM and FTIR analysis. Sol – gel immobilization with the lowest proportion of photocatalysts proved to be the most effective. Successful immobilization of titanium dioxide on the reference rubber substrate was achieved. Also, the photocatalytic activity of the immobilized layer was confirmed by successful photocatalytic degradation of ammonia.

titanium dioxide, solar photocatalysis, recycled rubber, air purification, environmental impact

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