Futuro in Ricerca 2013
Title: Advanced nanostructured materials for eco-sustainable cements: investigation of the structural properties and innovative strategies for their improvement
ICCOM Principal Investigator: Silvia Borsacchi
Project type: National – MIUR FIRB
Duration: 04/2014-03/2017
Website: http://futuroinricerca.miur.it/public.php/
Abstract: For the huge volumes involved, the production process of cement is responsible for the emission of 5% of anthropogenic CO2, mostly arising from the calcination of limestone and clay to obtain the mixture of calcium silicates and aluminates that constitutes cement. Recently, the worldwide increasing attention towards environmental issues and the need for suitable cements for specific applications, such as radio-active wastes encapsulation, led the scientific research to seek alternative binders. One of the most promising is magnesium silicate hydrate, formed upon hydration, in the presence of silica, of MgO, which can be easily obtained from magnesium silicate rather than from carbonate. The aims of this project are: the formulation of innovative eco-sustainable magnesium-based cements, the characterization, by means of a multi-disciplinary approach, of their composition-structure-properties relations and the improvement of their performances. The ICCOM group is focused in particular on the in-depth study of the structure of these innovative materials by exploiting Solid State NMR Spectroscopy and Relaxometry.
Other ICCOM participants: Francesca Martini, Lucia Calucci, Claudia Forte.
Partnership: Dipartimento di Chimica dell’Università di Firenze, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale dell’Università di Pisa.
Sponsored by: Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research (MIUR-Italy), project code RBFR132WSM.
Overall financial contribution: € 784.335.
Contribution for ICCOM: € 261.517.