Facile and Simple Post Treatment Ball Milling Strategy for the Production of Low-Cost TiO 2 Composites with Enhanced Photocatalytic Performance and Applicability to Construction Materials.

A facile and cost-effective approach assisted by ball milling (BM) of commercial titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), has been utilized to develop cheaper and efficient construction materials. At least three of the commercial and cheaper TiO 2 samples (BA01-01, BA01-01+ and R996, designated as A1, A4 and R1, respectively) were selected and subjected to BM treatment to enhance their photocatalytic efficiencies, if possible. It was noted, that the samples A1, A4 and R1 were typical composites of TiO 2 and calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) and contained varying proportions of anatase, and rutile phases of TiO 2 and CaCO 3 . Two of the highly efficient commercial TiO 2 samples, Degussa P25 (simply designated as P25) and ST01 (Ishihara Ind.) were selected for making benchmark comparisons of photocatalytic efficiencies. The BM treated TiO 2 samples (designated as TiO 2 -BM with respect to A1, A4 and R1) were evaluated for photocatalytic efficiencies both in both aqueous (methylene blue (MB)) and gaseous (NO x ) photodegradation reactions. Based on detailed comparative investigations, it was observed that A1-BM photocatalyst exhibited superior photocatalytic performances over A4-BM and R1-BM, towards both MB and NO x photodegradation reactions. The difference of NO x photodegradation efficiency between the mortar mixed with A1-BM and that mixed with ST01, and P-25 at 15% were 16.6%, and 32.4%, respectively. Even though the mortar mixed with A1-BM at 15% composition exhibited a slightly lower NO x photodegradation efficiency as compared to mortar mixed with the expensive ST01 and P-25 photocatalysts, the present work promises an economic application in the eco-friendly construction materials for air purification considering the far lower cost of A1. The reasons for the superior performance of A1-BM were deduced through characterization of optical properties, surface characteristics, phase composition, morphology, microstructure and particle size distribution between pristine and BM treated A1 using characterization techniques such as diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy and particle size analysis.