A number of pilot projects around the world have seen the material used in, for example, concrete – hence the Jubilee Church in Rome. In Japan, Mitsubishi markets a brand of titanium dioxide-treated paving stones and Toto makes coated ceramic tiles.
The material hit the news again this week when the aluminium firm Alcoa announced its new product Ecoclean, a titanium dioxide coating on aluminium panels for cladding buildings.
The firm claims that 1,000 square metres of the coated panels eat up the equivalent NOx output of four cars.
"What we see, especially in Europe, is more and more legislation… about the air quality in cities, and I think that Ecoclean is a product that can really help mitigate the effects of emitters such as cars by its air-cleansing characteristics," Alcoa spokesman Jasper Van Zon told BBC News.
vía BBC News – ‘Smog-eating’ material breaking into the big time.