A promising approach for remediating air quality contaminants is to employ photocatalyst that oxidize these compounds. By definition, photocatalyst is a catalyst that accelerates photoreaction.
When photocatalyst is exposed to light in the presence of water vapor, two highly reactive substances are formed: hydroxyl radicals [OH] and a superoxide anion [O2-1]. It allows the oxidation of airborne VOCs and toxic organic matter into carbon dioxide and water at room temperature with UV or near-UV light source. It does not need a special energy and use only clean energy in ordinary life. Specific titanium dioxide has strong photo catalyst reaction. It has strong oxidation and decomposition strength.
Photocatalyst has the following advantages over any current air purification technologies:
- Real destruction of pollutant rather than a simple transfer on a substrate
- Degradation of pollutant at ambient temperature and pressure
- Build with easily available materials and by mean of well-known techniques
- Economical, cheap and low energy consumption
- Adapted for a large range of pollutant (VOC, bacteria, mold)