APPLICATION OF HETEROGENEOUS PHOTOCATALYTIC TECHNOLOGY FOR THE DEGRADATION OF PRIORITY AIR POLLUTANTS IN AMBIENT AIR AND INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS-A SHORT OVERVIEW

After the pioneering work of Fujishima and Honda (1972) on the photocatalytic properties of TiO2 numerous studies carried out to elucidate the principles, mechanisms and mode of action of TiO2 for environmental remediation purposes. The development of innovative coatings containing TiO2 as a photocatalyst was in the foreground of research activities with the aim to be used as building and construction materials mainly outdoors, e.g. on building facades in high traffic roads for the degradation of priority air pollutants (NOx and volatile organic compounds) in the urban atmosphere. Though the advantages connected with the application of TiO2 due to its band gap of 3.2 eV are limited. TiO2 is effective only in the UV-region of the solar spectrum with wavelengths