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Damia Gregori
Composite coatings with photocatalytic properties obtained by the sol-gel process on flexible materials
Damia GREGORI
Heterogeneous photocatalysis is a depolluting technique presenting economical and ecological advantages. Among photocatalysts, TiO2 is one of the most effective. The objective of this work is to synthesize a photocatalytic flexible coating to obtain depolluting and self-cleaning textiles. The film will have to protect the organic substrates from the photocatalytic reactions and preserve their flexibility for the next industrial applications. In this context, we developed a composite hybrid film with homogeneous dispersion of TiO2 nanoparticles into a silica based matrix. The matrix is prepared using the sol-gel process, at low temperature, which allows introducing organic groups in the inorganic network. Such modification of the structure induces increase of flexibility of the final material.