Nitrogen oxides (NO_x) play a significant role in reducing urban air quality, often playing a role in contributing to photochemical smog pollution events. This Healthy Urban Environments pilot project seeks to develop a coating to enable the front surfaces of photovoltaic (solar) panel installations to actively remove NO_x from the urban atmospheres.

Researchers will conduct laboratory evaluations of the viability of commercial grade TiO₂ as an agent for photocatalytic reduction of NO_x particles. This will be accomplished by developing a photochemical flow-through test system with NO_x analyzers installed upstream and downstream to measure the efficiency of the system to remove NO_x particles. Once validated, the same system will be used to evaluate a range of TiO₂ photocatalysts to determine the most effective option for real-world deployment.