Deep decarbonization of industry is possible with innovations

27-Mar-2019 - On behalf of the EU Commission, Fraunhofer ISI explored what contribution individual technologies can make to decarbonizing industry and how to support them. The study shows that it is possible to cut emissions by 95% by 2050. However, this requires innovative carbon-neutral technologies and ...

Cementless fly ash binder makes concrete 'green'

Researchers use byproduct from coal-fired power plants to replace Portland cement

22-Jun-2018 - Rice University engineers have developed a composite binder made primarily of fly ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants, that can replace Portland cement in concrete. The material is cementless and environmentally friendly, according to Rice materials scientist Rouzbeh Shahsavari, who ...

Weak hydrogen bonds key to strong, tough infrastructure

31-Jan-2018 - The right mix of hydrogen bonds in polymer and cement composites is critical to making strong, tough and ductile infrastructure material, according to Rice University scientists who want to mimic the mechanics of mother-of-pearl and similar natural composites with synthetic materials. Seashells ...

Corrosion in real time

18-Sep-2017 - What affects almost everything made of metal, from cars to boats to underground pipes and even the fillings in your teeth? Corrosion -- a slow process of decay. At a global cost of trillions of dollars annually, it carries a steep price tag, not to mention, the potential safety, environmental and ...

Indented cement shows unique properties

21-Jul-2017 - Rice University scientists have determined that no matter how large or small a piece of tobermorite is, it will respond to loading forces in precisely the same way. But poking it with a sharp point will change its strength. Tobermorite is a naturally occurring crystalline analog to the ...

How seawater strengthens ancient Roman concrete

05-Jul-2017 - Around A.D. 79, Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote in his Naturalis Historia that concrete structures in harbors, exposed to the constant assault of the saltwater waves, become "a single stone mass, impregnable to the waves and every day stronger." He wasn't exaggerating. While modern marine ...

2017 WITec Paper Award for Outstanding Scientific Publications

29-Jun-2017 - From nearly 60 submissions for the 2017 WITec Paper Award, our jury selected the three best publications. They were written by scientists from Ireland, Portugal and Germany who used WITec correlative confocal Raman microscopes to study transition metal dichalcogenides, textile fibers and cement. ...

A recipe for concrete that can withstand road salt deterioration

22-May-2017 - Road salt, used in copious helpings each winter to protect them from ice and preserve safe driving conditions, is slowly degrading the concrete they're made of. Engineers have known for some time that calcium chloride salt, commonly used as deicer, reacts with the calcium hydroxide in concrete to ...

Sustainable ceramics without a kiln

01-Mar-2017 - The manufacture of cement, bricks, bathroom tiles and porcelain crockery normally requires a great deal of heat: a kiln is used to fire the ceramic materials at temperatures well in excess of 1,000°C. Now, material scientists from ETH Zurich have developed what seems at first glance to be an ...

Ways to turn cement's weakness to strength

05-Jan-2017 - Concrete isn't thought of as a plastic, but plasticity at small scales boosts concrete's utility as the world's most-used material by letting it constantly adjust to stress, decades and sometimes even centuries after hardening. Rice University researchers are a step closer to understanding ...