The main objective of the Action, via a concerted European effort, is to increase the fundamental knowledge of nanocrystalline photoactive materials and development of new products, which utilize self sterilizing and self cleaning photoactive materials in commercial applications. The Action will also concentrate on the development of EU standards for the characterization of photocatalytic materials.
The realization of these tasks will be accomplished through specific objectives of this Action that are summarized as follows:
The complexity of research on photocatalysis requires co-operation of scientists from various fields including scientists and engineers from physics, chemistry, medicine, materials science and engineering and process engineering, and additionally needs the involvement a number of equipment facilities. In this way, not only the participating groups will benefit directly from this Action, but there will be also considerable input into other research areas indirectly involved in the Action. Training and education activities of young scientists will enhance the development of new skills and expertise in the field of photocatalysis. European academic research integration will achieve also the appropriate critical mass of international partners with very different field of expertise to attain the objectives. The new photoactive nanostructured materials will have ecological, industrial and societal importance and may be developed to be high-added value commercial products and allow the development of innovative enterprises. The developments achieved by this Action will essentially strengthen the competitiveness of Europe by introducing photocatalytic nanotechnology in a multitude of application fields.
Potential direct economic benefits are generated from breakthroughs in new knowledge derived from the design and availability of multifunctional photoactive materials for the implementation of new processes and products based on smart materials. These, in turn, could have considerable impacts on many large scale productions, food packaging, self sterilising goods and tools, with larger EU independence on Japanese technology. There are many other industries that will also profit from the development of novel photocatalyst coatings. These include the building materials industry (especially materials used visibly e.g. on roof, walls, constructions made from concrete etc.), the glass industry (window glass, glass facades, automotive glazing, mirrors), the food processing industry (e.g. machinery), the textile industry (e.g. textiles for medical applications), the medicine, life-science and pharmaceutical industry (e.g. instrumentation, machinery, working benches) as well as the paint/coatings industry in general.