Environmentally Friendly Road Cover

Environmentally friendly road cover with photocatalytic removal of nitrogen dioxide and a reduced heat sinking effect

Copyright: © ISAC

Air pollution and the urban heat island effect are two major environmental issues facing many cities around the world. Since road surfaces account for about 30 to 45 percent of the surface area in large cities, the impact of measures on this area is considered to have a significant influence on the aforementioned problems.

By incorporating titanium dioxide (TiO2) into the pavement, photocatalytic reactions can be induced in the road surface. The titanium dioxide can be activated by UV-A and then act as a highly reactive "active oxygen" that accelerates the chemical oxidation process and promotes faster decomposition of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from motor vehicles. Secondly, the use of titanium dioxide reduces the absorption of solar radiation and leads to a cooling of the road surface. This happens because the white TiO2 particles lighten the black surface and thus a greater proportion of the radiation is reflected.

However, there are still some problems to be solved in the application of TiO2 -containing pavement surfaces. For example, how to use or size the TiO2 -containing coating materials and how to effectively integrate these TiO2 particles into the pavement surface so that sufficient durability of the asphalt is provided and the pavement surface properties, such as skid resistance, are not limited.

Project Objectives

1. Optimization of application methods and the composition of the TiO2-containing material for asphalt pavements with regard to NOx degradation performance and durability.
2. Optimization of the application methods and the composition of the TiO2-containing material for asphalt pavements with regard to the temperature effect of cooling.
3. Optimization of the application methods and the composition of the TiO2-containing material for asphalt pavements with regard to the overall performance of the air purification process and a reduced heat sinking effect.