Novel Honeycomb-Microstructured Asphalt Composite Coatings for Sustainable Photocatalytic Application
The microstructure of asphalt materials on photocatalytic performance was studied in this work. Firstly, asphalt composite coatings with highly ordered honeycomb microstructures were fabricated by a bottom-up approach through adjusting the solution concentration and the content of polystyrene (PS) additive. Further incorporation of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles endows the porous coatings with photocatalytic functionality. SEM images demonstrate that TiO2 nanoparticles disperse and decorate on the pore walls of coating. In comparison to the compact coatings prepared by traditional method, the obtained honeycomb microstructured asphalt/PS/TiO2 coatings possess an enhanced and sustainable efficiency of removing NOx. Specifically, when introducing porous microstructures to the coating, the NOx reduction efficiency is 16% higher than that of traditional compact sample and shows no attenuation in continuous use.
