Microsized-titanium dioxide based self-cleaning cement: incorporation of calcined dolomite for enhancement of photocatalytic activity

The replacement of nanosized-TiO2 with microsized-TiO2 in the self-cleaning cement could reduce the cost and nanotoxicity. However, the use of microsized-TiO2 has the major disadvantage of reduction in the photocatalytic activity of the self-cleaning cement. The present work proposes the incorporation of calcined dolomite along with microsized-TiO2 into the cement matrix for the enhancement of photocatalytic activity. The proposed cement sample and ingredients were characterized by XRD (x-ray diffraction) patterns, SEM (scanning electron microscopy), ED-XRF (energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence) spectroscopy, BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) analysis and EDX (energy dispersive x-ray) spectroscopy. Further, a photocatalytic activity test was performed to evaluate the self-cleaning ability of the proposed cement sample in terms of specific photoactivity and photonic efficiency. The cement sample prepared by incorporation of 10% calcined dolomite to the mixture of 87% clinker and 3% microsized-TiO2 has shown significant improvement in the photocatalytic activity.