Photocatalytic Superficial Treatments: Applicability in Confined Environments

The study dealt with the indoor pollution topic and the issue of its technological solution through the treatment of the surfaces with the application of photocatalytic products. Particularly have been analyzed hospital environments considered to elevated indoor pollution and for which in Italy exists a specific and rather complex regulation. Photocatalytic products contain a photocatalyst, the titanium dioxide, that, through the beaming of a bright source of appropriate light, is activated and that it allows the degradation of pollutants in the environment. In these last 10 years, a lot of researches have been conducted regarding these types of products, and the effectiveness of the degradation has emerged in comparison to the outdoor pollutants; only from few years the research is addressing to the analysis of the effectiveness or less effectiveness that the application of these products inside the confined environments could give. The theme of the indoor pollution is a theme of general interest for the health of the man, and of the communities. The pollution in the built environment is a non negligible threat for the health of the inhabitants in comparison to the outdoor pollution. The dangerousness for the health of the man, consequential from the presence of the contaminants, is due to the combination of a series of factors related both to the greatest concentrations of present pollutants inside the closed environments and to the always great permanence of the individual inside closed places, and to the possibility that these environments are frequented by a part of population defined weak, as elders, ill people and children.