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Updated: Jul 22, 2025

The Effect of Interfacial Chemical Bonding in TiO2-SiO2 Composites on Their Photocatalytic NOx Abatement Performance
Published on: July 4, 2017
Photocatalytic fixation of NOx in soils
Antonio R Sánchez-Rodríguez1, Elena Gómez-Álvarez1, José M Méndez1
1Department of Agronomy, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071, Córdoba, Spain.
Abstract:
Nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) are important atmospheric pollutants that are directly harmful to human health. Recently in urban and industrial areas, synthetic materials have been developed and deployed to photocatalytically oxidize NOx to nitrate (NO3-) in order to improve air quality. We show that the natural presence of small amounts (≤5%) of titanium oxides, such as anatase and rutile, can also drive NOx oxidation to nitrate in soils under UV-visible irradiation. The NO uptake coefficients ranged between 0.1 × 10-6 for sandy soils to 6.4 × 10-5 in the case of tropical clay soils; the latter comparable in efficiency to current industrial man-made catalysts. This photocatalytic N-fixation mechanism offers a new strategy for NOx mitigation from the atmosphere by transforming it into nitrate, and simultaneously provides an energy efficient source of essential fertilizer to agriculture.
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