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Titanium dioxide is a very useful photocatalyst for the decomposition and diminution of environmental water and air pollutants. In such applications, it can be used as slurry or as immobilized coating obtained by different deposition methods. The studies performed in the last years showed that thermal spraying could be employed to elaborate TiO2 coatings with high performance for the decomposition of organic compounds. This manuscript presents a comparative study on the microstructure and photocatalytic performance of titania coatings obtained by different thermal spray techniques: atmospheric plasma spraying (APS), suspension plasma spraying (SPS), and high-velocity oxygen fuel spray process (HVOF). Different titania powders and suspensions were used to study the influence of the feedstockmaterials on the coating characteristics. The deposits weremainly characterised by SEM and X-ray diffraction. The photocatalytic performance was evaluated from the removal of nitrogen oxides. The experimental results showed that a drastic reduction of the pollutant concentration was obtained in presence of coatings elaborated by suspension plasma spraying. TiO2 coatings resulting from the spraying of agglomerated powder presentd less efficiency. That was mainly explained by the significant phase transformation from anatase to rutile that occurred in the enthalpic source during the spray processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a comparative study on the microstructure and photocatalytic performances of titanium dioxide coatings elaborated by various thermal spraying methods (plasma spraying in atmospheric conditions, suspension plasma spraying, and high-velocity oxyfuel spraying). Agglomerated spray dried anatase TiO2 powder was used as feedstock material for spraying. Morphology and microstructural characteristics of the coatings were studied mainly by scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction. The photocatalytic behavior of the TiO2-base surfaces was evaluated from the conversion rate of gaseous nitrogen oxides (NOx). It was found that the crystalline structure depended strongly on the technique of thermal spraying deposition. Moreover, a high amount of anatase was suitable for the photocatalytic degradation of the pollutants. Suspension plasma spraying has allowed retention of the original anatase phase and for very reactive TiO2 surfaces to be obtained for the removal of nitrogen oxides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: TiO2 and TiO2–Al composite coatings were prepared by plasma spraying using a reconstituted nanosized feedstock via a spray drying method. Effects of various spray conditions on the microstructure, porosity, microhardness and wear resistance related to the mechanical performance of coatings were evaluated. The coatings sprayed using relatively low plasma power were composed of two distinct microstructures of well defined lamellar structure, similar to microstructure of conventional plasma sprayed coatings generated by fully melted particles, and embedded nano or sub-micron particles generated by partial/non-molten particles of feedstock materials. The fraction of partial/non-molten particles in coating layers was increased by Al additive. Such a characteristic of blended microstructure of coatings was clearly confirmed from a bimodal distribution of microhardness described by Weibull plots. The optimized addition of Al into TiO2 increased the spraying efficiency, and also, improved mechanical properties such as microhardness and wear resistance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An artificial neural network (ANN) was built to analyze the decrease of nitrogen oxides relative to TiO2 powder photocatalytic efficiency. Experimental sets were considered to train and test ANN where it was possible to identify an optimized structure representing the correlations between experimental variables and NO and NOx efficiencies. Predicted results permitted to point out the role of exposed surface and powder mass. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper deals with the elaboration of titanium dioxide coatings, designed for photocatalytic applications, obtained by a non-conventional method of deposition, suspension plasma spraying (SPS), an alternative of the atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) in which the material feedstock is a suspension of the material powder to be sprayed. TiO2 P25 powder (Degussa AG) mechanically dispersed in distilled water and/or ethanol was injected in argon–hydrogen and argon–hydrogen–helium plasma under atmospheric conditions. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were performed to study the morphology and the crystalline phases of the titania coatings. Surface features were investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Photocatalytic efficiency of the elaborated samples was tested in an environmental test chamber set-up and evaluated from the conversion rate of nitrogen oxides. The results showed that the coating obtained from the injection of an alcoholic suspension contained 23% of anatase ratio and ensured a very low photocatalytic decomposition of nitrogen oxides. In contrast, the injection of an aqueous suspension into the plasma permitted to obtain deposits where the anatase phase and the crystallites size were preserved. Also, a conversion rate of the pollutants of about 40%, slightly better compared to that of the initial P25 powder (around 32%) was noticed. This slightly higher efficiency was correlated with a cleaning of the particles surfaces when crossing the plasma and a higher hydroxylation of the coating surface. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper deals with the study of the photocatalytic behaviours of TiO2 and TiO2–10wt.% Al coatings elaborated by high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) spraying using spray-dried nanosized feedstock powders. In the HVOF flame, the powders were injected by two methods: internal injection, i.e. as in conventional HVOF process and external injection, i.e. outside the torch nozzle. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were employed to characterize the microstructure and the crystalline structure of the TiO2-based coatings. The photocatalytic activities were evaluated by the nitrogen oxides removal and compared with that of the initial powders. It was found that the amount of anatase in the coatings depends on the nature of the powder and also on the type of injection method. The TiO2 coatings, as well as, the TiO2–Al coatings elaborated using the external powder injection presented a better photocatalytic activity (the nitrogen oxides conversion rates were about 25–42% for NO and 14–18% for NO x ) than those obtained by the conventional HVOF process (<5%). Besides, TiO2 coatings containing aluminium particles had an enhanced photocatalytic activity than those of un-doped titania deposits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]