Styrene Butadiene Styrene (SBS) polymer-modified asphalt binders have become widely used in asphalt pavement because of their advantages in high- and low-temperature performance and fatigue resistance. Asphalt pavement is inevitably exposed to sunlight and ultraviolet (UV) radiation during its construction and service life. However, consideration of the aging effect of UV radiation is still limited in current pavement design and evaluation systems. In order to evaluate the impact of UV radiation on the aging properties of SBS-modified asphalt binders, UV aging tests were performed on Rolling Thin Film Oven Test (RTFOT)-aged samples with different UV radiation intensities and aging times. Sixteen different groups of tests were conducted to compare the rheological properties and functional group characteristics of SBS-modified asphalt binders. Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR), Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR), FTIR, and SEM tests were conducted to evaluate the aging mechanisms in various UV aging conditions. The results found that UV radiation seriously destroys the network structure formed by the cross-linking effect in SBS-modified asphalt binders, which aggravates the degradation of SBS and results in a great change of rheological properties after UV aging. The nature of SBS-modified asphalt binder aging resulted from the degradation of SBS and the changes of asphalt binder base composition, which lead to the transformation of colloidal structure and the deterioration of asphalt binder performance. The tests also found that continuous UV radiation can increase shrinkage stress in the asphalt binder surface and leads to surface cracking of the asphalt binder.

The NO_x degradation performance of nano-TiO₂ as a coating material for the road environment was evaluated in this research. The nano-TiO₂ coating materials for both road surface and roadside were prepared by using anatase nano-TiO₂, activated carbon powder, silane coupling agent and deionized water. The impact of varying amounts of coating material and silane coupling agent were evaluated. The road environment of NO_x degradation was simulated by the photocatalytic test system designed by the research team. For the road surface coating, the photocatalytic degradation experiments of NO under different radiation intensities were carried out. The results show that the material has good photocatalytic degradation performance, and the proper amount of silane coupling agent can enhance the bonding performance of the material and asphalt mixture. For the roadside coating, sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate was selected as the surfactant to carry out the photocatalytic degradation experiment of NO₂ with different dosages of surfactant. The results showed that when the mass ratio of nano-TiO₂ and surfactant was about 1:2, the catalytic degradation effect of the material was the best.

Asphalt pavement is inevitably exposed to sunlight and different water environment during the service life, and the environment changes have caused the asphalt to be aged under the more complex environment such as more severe ultraviolet (UV) radiations, acid rain, or deicing salt conditions, however, the ageing mechanism and impact of coupled water and UV radiation is still not clear. In order to evaluate the coupling impact of different water environment (salt, acid) and UV radiation on the rheological properties and microstructure of asphalt material, short-term aged Rolling Thin Film Oven (RTFO) samples were further aged in UV and various water environment to simulate the UV and acid rain or salt condition, the Dynamic Shear Rheological (DSR) test, Bending Beam Rheological (BBR) test, SARA (saturates, aromatics, resin, and asphaltene) four-component analysis test and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) tests were carried out. The results show that the coupling of different water environments and UV radiation accelerated the ageing of asphalt, which leads to the decrease of saturated, aromatic and resin content, the increase of asphaltene, and the enhancement of absorption peaks of carbonyl and sulfoxide groups. The result also found that shorter wavelength UV radiation has a severer effect on asphalt ageing under the same UV radiation level. Highlights