DIMMs · Durable Infrastructure Materials Modified by self-assembled hollow nanostructured materials
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-01-01 → 2023-06-08
- EU contribution
- €224,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Durable Infrastructure Materials Modified by self-assembled hollow nanostructured materials
The production of Portland cement (the most common binder in concrete) is an energy-intensive process that accounts for a significant portion of global CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases. With increasing energy costs and heightened concerns about the environmental footprint of concrete construction and maintenance activities, there has been a steady increase in interest and research activity on the use of industrial solid waste and other recycled materials in concrete, including those targeting early-age failure prevention. Although nanomaterials are considered a promising technique to mitigate the durability problem of concrete structures, to date, however, little research has been reported on the use of nanotechnology for early-age failure mitigation, whereas our bench-scale investigation proved this to be very promising. The primary goal and main contribution of this project is to provide economical approaches to manufacture durable concrete material through nanotechnology. After this project, we developed a series of technologies to build environmentally-friendly constructions by using low-carbon cementitious materials. This project not only focuses on the use of hierarchical hollow-structured nanoparticles and cementitious materials to manufacture durable green constructions but also investigates the long-term performance and practical applications of these materials. The main benefits of the findings are: 1) successfully developed a facile and cost-effective method for the synthesis of self-assembled hollow nanostructured materials; 2) provide a feasible route to realize the nano-modified cementitious materials with outstanding performances; 3) shed light on the hidden internal curing mechanism, that governs the microstructure evolution and enhancement of mechanical properties and durability; 4) provides a potential possibility of the practical applications of the self-assembled hierarchical hollow nanostructured materials in sustainable and smart structures.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This Fellowship aims to train a professional researcher to become a leading EU based scholar in sustainable infrastructure area through a multidisciplinary project entitled as “Durable Infrastructure Materials Modified by self-assembled hollow nanostructured materials” (DIMMs). This interdisciplinary project is focused on using self-assembled hollow nanostructured materials to realize the microstructural aligning of both cement and asphalt concrete, thus improve their durability when exposed to the aggressive environment such as corrosion along with freeze/thaw attacks. Furthermore, an integrated model will be developed to describe the percolation process of the aggressive agents in cement and asphalt concrete by combining a microstructural analysis to illustrate the underpinning nano modification mechanisms. This project will shed a light on the microstructural control of infrastructure materials through nanotechnology, by developing the correlations between the microstructures and engineering properties of infrastructure materials in a various and aggressive service environments. The Fellow will be intensively trained in the multidisciplinary fields of chemical engineering, materials science, microstructural analysis and civil engineering. The Fellow’s professional skills will be significantly elevated in the project and intellectual property management, outreach and networking via an inter-sectoral training. The training will be provided by a multidisciplinary supervision team at the host – Aston University, two academic secondment institutions – University of Nottingham and TU Delft, and two industrial secondment partners Nynas Sweden and Nanoco UK. The international academic and research experience gained by the Fellow will also enrich EU's Research area in the fields of producing sustainable infrastructure materials through nanotechnology and bringing new ideas for development of the infrastructures with low energy consumption.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- ASTON UNIVERSITY · BirminghamCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union