Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-11-2023
Abstract
The deleterious effects of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation on construction materials, especially wood and plastics, and the consequent impacts on their useful lifetimes, are well documented in scientific literature. Any future increase in solar UV radiation and ambient temperature due to climate change will therefore shorten service lifetimes of materials, which will require higher levels of stabilisation or other interventions to maintain their lifetimes at the present levels. The implementation of the Montreal Protocol and its amendments on substances that deplete the ozone layer, controls the solar UV-B radiation received on Earth. This current quadrennial assessment provides a comprehensive update on the deleterious effects of solar UV radiation on the durability of natural and synthetic materials, as well as recent innovations in better stabilising of materials against solar UV radiation-induced damage. Pertinent emerging technologies for wood and plastics used in construction, composite materials used in construction, textile fibres, comfort fabric, and photovoltaic materials, are addressed in detail. Also addressed are the trends in technology designed to increase sustainability via replacing toxic, unsustainable, legacy additives with ‘greener’ benign substitutes that may indirectly affect the UV stability of the redesigned materials. An emerging class of efficient photostabilisers are the nanoscale particles that include oxide fillers and nanocarbons used in high-performance composites, which provide good UV stability to materials. They also allow the design of UV-shielding fabric materials with impressive UV protection factors. An emerging environmental issue related to the photodegradation of plastics is the generation of ubiquitous micro-scale particles from plastic litter exposed to solar UV radiation. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]
Language
English
Publication Title
Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences
Grant
27533
Rights
© The Author(s) 2023. This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Andrady, A.L., Heikkilä, A.M., Pandey, K.K. et al. Effects of UV radiation on natural and synthetic materials. Photochem Photobiol Sci 22, 1177–1202 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-023-00377-6
Manuscript Version
Final Publisher Version