from the conferences organized by TANGER Ltd.
Self-cleaning properties of the surfaces of the building materials represent a significant benefit that reduces the operational costs connected to maintenance of the building structures. In principle, the self-cleaning phenomenon can be achieved by three effects: i) hydrophobic, ii) photocatalytic, and iii) a combination of hydrophobic and photocatalytic effects. In our work, we focused on the evaluation of the self-cleaning performance of blocks of pastes made of white cement achieved by the photocatalytic effect. The photocatalyst g-C3N4 was applied on the surface of hardened cement pastes and self-cleaning performance of such treated surfaces were evaluated using UNI 11259 ‘Determination of the photocatalytic activity of hydraulic binders - Rodammina test method, and ČSN ISO 27448 Fine ceramics (advanced ceramics, advanced technical ceramics) — Test method for self-cleaning performance of semiconducting photocatalytic materials — Measurement of water contact angle’. Although the principles of both methods differ, the results obtained using both methods indicate that surfaces covered with g-C3N4 exhibit significant self-cleaning performance. In addition, the method based on the measurement of the changes in water contact angle confirmed the suitability of method based on RhB degradation for testing of light-yellowish g-C3N4 modified surfaces.
Keywords: g-C3N4, photocatalysis, self-cleaning surfaces, nanomaterials© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.