Preparation and Characterization of Novel Self-Cleaning Glasses with TiO2 Coatings

Common glass for architecture had only one function, i.e., transparency and the requirement for indoor health made “environmental protection type” novel glass necessary. In the present study, a novel self-cleaning glass was prepared by sol-gel method. To form self-cleaning glass, common glass was adopted as the foundation base and TiO2 coatings were cover its outside surfaces. The novel glass had little change in shape but alteration to slightly white compared to common glass, thanks to white TiO2. The self-cleaning glass could reduce formaldehyde concentration of air from more than 160 mg•m3 to 0.4 mg•m3 within 60 h, while the common glass could cut down to ca. 30 mg•m3 and reaching equilibrium before 24 h. The removal of formaldehyde by common glass could be owing to adsorption action and slightly gradation by ultraviolet light, and the removal by self-cleaning glass could be mostly assigned to photodegradation by TiO2 when ultraviolet light irradiation. Besides, the self-cleaning glass exhibit 74.99% and 91.60% anti-bacteria rate to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, respectively, when common glass was chosen as control. In brief, the self-cleaning glass was proved excellent to remove formaldehyde and inhibit bacteria. As a result of the non-preference of the photodegradtion and anti-bacteria by TiO2, it was believed the self-cleaning glass could remove almost all the kinds of indoor organic gases and inhibit almost all the kinds of bacteria, including some pathogens. The self-cleaning glass had great potential in interior finish application meeting the challenge for environmental protection.