Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands have found that treating pavement with titanium oxide causes a reduction in nitrogen oxide air pollution. In their paper published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, the team describes how they treated pavement sections in the city of Hengelo with titanium oxide and then took air samples that showed lowered levels of nitrogen oxide.

 

Nitrogen oxide is a poisonous gas—it's released into the air by both gasoline powered vehicles and coal burning power plants—when it reacts with other chemicals in the air, smog results. Because of the negative health effects on people living in cities, researchers have been looking for novel ways to reduce the amount of pollution in the air. In this new effort, the team turned to titanium oxide (a naturally occurring oxide of titanium), a material that has been previously known to absorb nitrogen oxide. They mixed the material with normal concrete to create photocatalytic blocks which were then placed into a 150 meter section of road bed. They also placed identical blocks—save for the titanium oxide—in another 100 meter section of roadbed nearby to serve as a control.

 

In analyzing the data from their samples they found that nitrogen oxide levels were on average 19 percent lower over the treated blocks than over the control blocks. They also found that when weather conditions were ideal, the air over the treated blocks had 45 percent less of the pollutant than air over the control blocks, showing just how effective the treatment can be.

 

Cristal Global, based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is the world's second-largest producer of titanium dioxide and a world leader in the innovation and manufacture of titanium products.

 

CristalACTiV™ Ultrafine TiO2-based materials are the key ingredients of a number of catalytic systems designed to significantly reduce air pollution levels.