Photocatalytic Degradation of Air Borne Pollutants

Heterogeneous photocatalytic oxidation of organic air contaminants is a promising technology that offers distinct advantages. These advantages include potential lower operating costs, the elimination of treatment reagents or electron acceptors, the possible recovery, regeneration and reuse of the photocatalyst and finally its widespread applicability for the complete mineralization of organic compounds (Miller and Fox, 1993; Suri

et al

., 1993). Cabrera

et al

., (1994) indicated that almost any organic pollutant, and many inorganic ones, could be completely mineralized or separated by means of heterogeneous photocatalysis. Additionally, photocatalytic technology can be used in conjunction with solar radiation (Suri

et al

., 1993) at close to ambient temperature (Cassano

et al

., 1995; Falconer and Magrini-Bair, 1998; Miller and Fox, 1993). Photocatalysis also shows important prospects for certain air treatment applications, given that the observed apparent quantum efficiencies can be in excess of 100% (Ibrahim and de Lasa, 2003).