Photocatalytic activation of fibrous lightweight polymer concrete surfaces under artificial light source

In general, surface contamination of building materials is caused by pollution, which can be divided into human-made and natural sources. Building materials whose surfaces are exposed to pollutants from these sources for a long time show chemical and physical degradation and lose their function over time and their service life is shortened. Due to photocatalytic feature provided to the material surfaces, organic pollutants on the surface are degraded as a result of oxidation and reduction reactions under the influence of light. In this study, the self-cleaning performance was measured on the surfaces of fibrous lightweight polymer concretes with titanium dioxide (TiO2) reinforcement incorporated into the structure. Perlite-based concrete specimens with TiO2/resin ratios of 0%, 3%, 6% and 9% and fiber/resin ratios of 0%, 0.5% and 1% were prepared. When the results of the self-cleaning test with Rhodamine B dye were examined, the samples with a TiO2/resin ratio of 9% had the highest degradation percentages of about 67%. This study shows that photocatalytic properties can be imparted to lightweight polymer concretes with different structures from conventional concrete by TiO2 reinforcement.