Cement made from steel production byproduct can lead to a huge CO2 reduction

06-Dec-2016 - Steel production generates some hundred million tons of steel slag worldwide each year. This giant mountain of leftovers is largely dumped. Eindhoven University of Technology professor of building materials, Jos Brouwers, will be working with industrial partners to investigate whether he can make ...

Breakthrough offers greater understanding of safe radioactive waste disposal

22-Nov-2016 - A group of scientists from The University of Manchester, the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and the UK's synchrotron science facility, Diamond Light Source, has completed research into radioactively contaminated material to gain further understanding around the issue, crucial for the safe and ...

Nothing -- and something -- give concrete strength, toughness

Rice University scientists show how voids, particles sap energy from cracks

10-Aug-2016 - What does one need to strengthen or toughen concrete? A lot of nothing. Or something. The "nothing" is in the form of microscopic voids and the "something" consists of particular particles embedded in the most common construction material on Earth. Rice University materials scientist Rouzbeh ...

Finding a new formula for concrete

Looking to bones and shells as blueprints for stronger, more durable concrete.

27-May-2016 - Researchers at MIT are seeking to redesign concrete — the most widely used human-made material in the world — by following nature’s blueprints. The team contrasts cement paste — concrete’s binding ingredient — with the structure and properties of natural materials such as bones, shells, and ...

Brittle is better for making cement

13-Apr-2016 - Because concrete, the world's most-used construction material, is such a major contributor to climate change, it's worth knowing every detail about how it's manufactured, according to Rice University scientists. The Rice lab of theoretical physicist Rouzbeh Shahsavari is looking into those ...

Exploiting high speed light for super slow science

17-Feb-2016 - Scientists at the world's premier science conference - the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting - will this year be discussing the advances enabled by the UK's pioneering Long-Duration Experiment facility (LDE). Unmatched anywhere in the world, the LDE allows ...

Riddle of cement’s structure is finally solved

Findings may guide development of formulas to make the material more durable, less CO2-intensive

10-Feb-2016 - Concrete is the world’s most widely used construction material, so abundant that its production is one of the leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Yet answers to some fundamental questions about the microscopic structure and behavior of this ubiquitous material have remained elusive. ...

Structure of 'concrete disease' solved

09-Nov-2015 - Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) teamed up with colleagues from the Swiss Materials Science Lab Empa to study a degenerative sign of ageing in concrete: the so-called alkali-aggregate reaction (AAR). In the course of AAR, a material forms that takes up more space than the ...

BASF opens construction chemicals production facility

BASF’s first production plant for concrete admixture in Western Africa

21-Oct-2015 - BASF inaugurated its new production plant for concrete admixtures in Lagos, Nigeria. The production site is BASF’s answer to the increasing demand for construction chemicals in western Africa. “We are now able to rapidly supply our customers with admixtures for all cement and aggregate types, ...

Resistance makes waves

There is a growing understanding of the conditions required for superconductivity and how it can be achieved at realistic temperatures

02-Jan-2014 - Even physics can give pointers for energy saving. An international team working together with the Centre for Quantum Materials, run by the Max Planck Society in conjunction with the University of British Columbia (Canada), is now in a position to provide materials scientists with tips for the ...