Description: Nowadays, strong development and lack of pollutant control in many economic sectors have made environmental pollution more severe than ever before. Many industries such as consumer goods production and food process… have dismissed poisons that can damage human ecology and cause serious diseases for humans by their release into air, water resources. The development of nano technology, of which, typical material, nano TiO₂ can help to clean the environment.

TiO₂ has the form of a white, stable, unharmful, inexpensive powder. It exists in one of three types of representative crystal structures: rutile, anatase and brookite. Rutile - TiO₂ has been used for hundreds of years in building materials as pigments for paints, chemical technology, drugs, cosmetics… Anatase - TiO₂ has photo-catalyst activity, so it has been researched as one of the most promising choices for reducing harmful pollutants in the environment, especially killing bacteria, disease causing mould in rooms of houses, residing house, deodorizing of kakosmia in office, disposing such gases as NOx, SOx, VOCs,.... in the atmosphere.

Using photo-catalyst effects of nano TiO₂, nanocomposite TiO₂ (combination of nano TiO₂ và apatite to make nanocomposit TiO₂ material) to decompose air pollutants is considered as one of the important technical measurements in environment cleansing. This method has the advantage of low investment and operation cost in comparison to traditional refining method using absorber (it only uses sunlight, oxy and air humidity); the oxidizing process is conducted at normal temperature and pressure; most organic pollutants can be oxidized to be CO₂ and H₂O, finally.

Institute of Environment Technology cooperated with Institute of Applied Physics and Scientific instruments have succeed in researching and manufacturing some scientific products using TiO₂ nanomaterials such as: active filters of photo-catalyst covered by TiO₂ on silica cotton and on Al₂O₃ fibers in air cleaners; TiO₂/Apatite paint to kill bacteria… This was achieved from the topic “Research and treat air pollution using nano TiO₂/Apatite, TiO₂/Al₂O₃ và TiO₂/silica cotton paints” led by Doctor Nguyen Thi Hue, Insitute of Environment Technology. This topic was implemented over two years (2009-2010).

Photo-catalyst active filter with internal air-cleaner screen made from TiO2/silica cotton and TiO₂/Al₂O₃ under 20W light resource, wave length of 365nm, distance of 50cm, NO, CO gases with 5ppm concentration that were dismissed into the air only after 3h (TiO₂/Al₂O₃ materials) and 2h (TiO₂/SiO₂ material) were completely eliminated; 100 microgam/m3 benzen, aldehit is also the same after 7-10h of reaction. TiO₂/silica cotton and TiO₂/Al₂O₃ have high, stable, persistent adhesion and actinic capacity equivalent to comparison models (France).

TiO₂/Apatite nano paint can treat air pollution such as eliminating kakosmia, killing bacteria, disease-causing mould in a hospital atmosphere, office, residing house or disposing harmful waste emissions caused by traffic activities. TiO₂/Apatite nano paint was tested successfully in bacteria contaminated rooms, National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and Vietnam - Cuba Friendship Hospital with positive results. After some hours coating paint on bricks, walls, fungus and bacteria almost completely disappeared.

New nanomaterials technology is easy to apply, generalized to recover a polluted air environment in densely-polluted cities. This will make important contributions to social-economic development and public health protection.

Supply forms: order based

Areas of application: hospital; sanitary; environmental protection

Development status: commercialized

Advantage: New nanomaterials technology is easy to apply, generalized to recover a polluted air environment in densely-polluted cities.

Mode of transfer: turnkey

Contact: Doctor Nguyen Thi Hue, Deputy Director of IET

Company: Insitute of Environmental Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology