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posted by chromas on Thursday September 27 2018, @02:02AM   Printer-friendly

Spheres can make concrete leaner, greener: Rice's microscopic particles promise stronger building materials and more

Rice University scientists have developed micron-sized calcium silicate spheres that could lead to stronger and greener concrete, the world's most-used synthetic material.

To Rice materials scientist Rouzbeh Shahsavari and graduate student Sung Hoon Hwang, the spheres represent building blocks that can be made at low cost and promise to mitigate the energy-intensive techniques now used to make cement, the most common binder in concrete.

The researchers formed the spheres in a solution around nanoscale seeds of a common detergent-like surfactant. The spheres can be prompted to self-assemble into solids that are stronger, harder, more elastic and more durable than ubiquitous Portland cement.

[...] The work builds on a 2017 project [DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b12532] [DX] by Shahsavari and Hwang to develop self-healing materials with porous, microscopic calcium silicate spheres. The new material is not porous, as a solid calcium silicate shell surrounds the surfactant seed.

Size- and Shape-Controlled Synthesis of Calcium Silicate Particles Enables Self-Assembly and Enhanced Mechanical and Durability Properties (DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b00917) (DX)

Related: Biologists Create Self-Healing Concrete
Probing Ways to Turn Cement's Weakness to Strength
Roman Concrete Explained
The Rock Solid History of Concrete
Fungi Can Help Concrete Heal Its Own Cracks


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  • (Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @03:33AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 27 2018, @03:33AM (#740623)
    • Refusing to pay for somebody else's roads.
    • Putting a gun in somebody else's face and saying "Pay your fair share for my roads, comrade"?
    Starting Score:    0  points
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday September 27 2018, @04:28AM (1 child)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Thursday September 27 2018, @04:28AM (#740646) Homepage Journal

    You know why our roads are so tremendously expensive? Regulations. I’ve reduced regulations terrifically. It would take, as an example, to build a highway. It would take 17 to 20 years to get approvals. And at the end of 20th year, in many cases, they voted it down. Do you approve? No. So they wasted tens of millions of dollars. There’s a highway in Maryland where it took exactly 17 years. And the original numbers were very little, and it ended up costing hundreds of millions of dollars for a very small, short highway. And we can’t have that.

    So we’re trying to bring that number down from anywhere from 13 to 20 years. We’re trying to bring it down to one year. You want to build a road? You want to build a highway? You want to build a school? You want to build a factory or a plant? You’re going to have your approvals very, very quickly.

    Now, you may be rejected quickly, too. But that’s OK, if you’re rejected quickly. You don’t want to be rejected at the end of the 17th year. I approved a power plant. Which has been under consideration for 11 years, and they gave up, and I approved it. And it’s a $7 billion plant. And the state wanted it and the local community wanted it, but they had environmental restrictions. And now it’s being built. We're #BuildingAStrongerAmerica [twitter.com]!!!! #InfrastructureInAmerica [twitter.com]

    • (Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Thursday September 27 2018, @04:32AM

      by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 27 2018, @04:32AM (#740651) Journal

      It is my shame that i really just haven't figured you out yet.

      --
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