Environmental catalytic city: New engine for air pollution control

Abstract

Air pollution is a major challenge to the improvement of urban environmental quality. The control of air pollution still faces severe challenges, especially in developing countries, such as ozone pollution control. Ozone is a typical secondary air pollutant, and its formation chemistry from its precursors (NO_x and volatile organic compounds) is highly nonlinear, which caused the emission reduction of its precursors is not always effective and therefore new assisted approaches to control of ozone pollution are needed. Photocatalysis and ambient catalysis technology are expected to be applied in open atmosphere as a new booster to the direct purification of air pollutants in emission sources. In this perspective, we summarize the current knowledge about the photocatalysis and ambient catalysis technology for the removal of air pollutants under natural photothermal conditions. Based on these technologies, we propose the concept of “Environmental Catalytic City”, which refers to the spontaneous purification of low concentration urban air pollutants in the atmosphere by catalytic materials coating on the artificial surfaces, such as building surfaces in the city. In this way, the urban city with self-purification function can remove air pollution without additional energy consumption. The further improvement, development, and application of the “Environmental Catalytic City” is also discussed.