The potential of building materials on the prevention of air pollution by intermediate storage and degradation of air pollutants

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dietmar Stephan
• Subject Area: Construction Material Sciences, Chemistry, Building Physics
• Term: from 2013 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 236233288

In this project, systematic studies are planned on the adsorption of organic and inorganic gaseous pollutants on well-defined test samples of different composition. In this context, the composition of the materials and their different physical and chemical properties (e.g. zeta potential, pore content, pore size distribution, specific surface area) will be determined and correlated with the sorption characteristics of the pollutants. The materials to be tested will differ not only in pore contents but also in pore size distributions. These can be changed in a wide range by selection of the binder type and the water/solid ratio. Thereby significant influences can be identified and conclusions on the adsorption capacities can be drawn. Very effective materials will be modified with TiO2 photocatalyst in a further step. This allows determining whether and to what extent the stored pollutants are degraded and which parameters are the influencing factors. The aim of the project is to open up fundamental correlations, which can help to evaluate the potential of building materials as buffering systems for pollutants. With this knowledge materials can be systematically used, to reduce emission peaks permanently or at least temporarily at bad weather conditions.For future application-oriented projects these findings will be very useful to produce optimized environmentally friendly building materials.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants