Stay Tuned For Smog-Busting Roofs

Students at the University of California at Riverside Bourns College of Engineering have discovered a chemical to coat roofing tiles that will help bust up the smog that plagues our cities.

Nitrogen oxides (the chemicals that cause smog) are formed when certain fuels are burned at high temperatures. Nitrogen oxides then react with volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight to create that icky brown/gray/green stuff that hangs in the air (smog).

Using a compound called titanium dioxide, the team at UC sealed the tiles in a chamber that simulates smog conditions. The compound cleared up between 88 and 97 percent of the nitrogen oxides that cause smog. WOW!

The researchers believe that an average-sized roof could combat the smog created by one car driven 11,000 miles, or 21 tons of nitric oxide could be destroy every day if 1 million roofs got coated.

Titanium dioxide is a naturally occurring common compound found in everything from paint to cosmetics and is generally harmless. The best news is that the coating for the average size home costs only $5 to make.

In May 2014, the research by the UC Riverside team – Carlos Espinoza, Louis Lancaster, Chun-Yu “Jimmy” Liang, Kelly McCoy, Jessica Moncayo and Edwin Rodriguez – received an award from the Environmental Protection Agency in the student design competition.

The future of the project is astonishing. The research team wants to see what happens when they add their titanium dioxide to exterior paint and to concrete walls and freeways dividers. They also need to discover how long the coating will last when applied and what impact changing the color of coating, which is currently white, would have.

Source: Information for this article was obtained from a press release by the University of California at Riverside.