Chinese Scientists Develop Bionic Low-Carbon New Building Material

Inspired by the process of building nests of sand tower worms in nature, the research team of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Technology of

the Chinese Academy of Sciences prepared a new bionic low-carbon building material with excellent mechanical properties under low temperature and normal pressure, which provided a new idea for energy saving and emission reduction in the construction field. Relevant results were recently published in the international academic journal Material.

"Traditional cement-based building materials consume a lot of energy in the production process and produce a lot of carbon emissions, so it is of great significance to develop new low-carbon building materials." Wang Shutao, the author of the article and researcher of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said.

It is reported that in recent years, a lot of research work has been carried out at home and abroad, trying to use binders to bond solid particles such as sand and slag to form natural building materials, but the strength of such materials is generally low, which is difficult to meet the actual building needs. In

this latest study, the research team used bionic strategies to design new low-carbon building materials based on natural bionics. "Sand tower worms can build strong nests by secreting mucus that combines positive and negative proteins to bond sand grains.". Inspired by this, the team introduced positively charged quaternized chitosan and negatively charged sodium alginate to form a bionic binder, which realized the firm bonding of various solid particles. Xu Xuetao, the first author of the article and a doctoral student at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said. Different solid particles such as

desert sand, sea sand and slag can be used to construct new building materials with high strength and low carbon. (Picture provided by Institute of Physical and Chemical Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

"The compressive strength of this new natural bionic low-carbon building material can reach 17 MPa, which can meet the requirements of conventional building materials." Wang Shutao said that the material also has excellent anti-aging performance, waterproof performance and unique recyclability, and has great application potential in the field of low-carbon buildings.