Improvement in indoor environmental quality is important as most people spend over 90 percent of their time indoors, especially the young, the elderly, and people with chronic illnesses. The temperature and humidity conditions in typical indoor environment are inductive to the growth of bacteria, molds, etc. Indoor air quality improvement in conventional buildings is primarily via the ventilation system, whose operation incurs an associated energy budget. This research will advance the understanding of the photocatalytic properties of titanium oxide nanofiber composite to be use for autogenously clean of the building environment. The autogenous cleaning function in air quality improvement and airborne contaminant removal will be driven by the ambient light and further augmented with nanoporous structure of the nanofiber. The material will improve the aesthetic appearance of building structures and can serve a variety of decoration purpose. The material design will be tailored towards green and upscalable production. This innovation will demonstrate the design of novel material and product to improve the quality of the indoor environment, which can lead to significant improvement in the public life and reduce the health care cost. Such innovation will expand the horizon of the multifunctional building envelope. It will also train students through research projects that increase the interdisciplinary competencies of young researchers in the areas of design and testing of innovative materials, green manufacturing, and smart building envelope, etc.

The objective of this research is to optimize the design of an innovative multifunctional photocatalytic fiber composite through microstructuring and photoactivity chemical tuning. The hypotheses of this research are 1) a green manufacturing procedure for non-metal doped titanium oxide nanomaterials can be implemented to extend the activation spectrum from ultraviolet to the visible and infrared ranges; 2) high efficiency photocatalytic air cleaning can be achieved via composite nanofiber structure. The project tasks include: 1) develop economical and effective syntheses manufacturing technology for non-metal doped titanium oxide nanomaterials with extended activation spectrum in the visible and/or near-infrared ranges; 2) characterize the photocatalytic efficiency of non-metal doped titanium oxide; 3) optimize the design of broadband photocatalytic nanofiber composite mat considering multifunctional design matrix and methods of application; and 4) quantify and fine-tune the photocatalytic efficiency and durability of the nanofiber mat.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2016-08-01
Budget End
2021-07-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
$481,138
Indirect Cost
Name
Case Western Reserve University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Cleveland
State
OH
Country
United States
Zip Code
44106