Construction with polymer blocks might be more environmentally
friendly.
Organic chemists at Flinders University are working on more sustainable
alternatives, with an emphasis on building materials generated from waste
products, because firing bricks and producing mortar and cement are
relatively expensive processes.
Another step toward the circular economy has been made by researchers from
the Flinders Chalker Lab, who have created lightweight but strong polymer
building blocks that can be joined together chemically without the need of
adhesives.
Their most recent research examined several ways to strengthen these
materials in construction while also testing their strength.
According to Justin Chalker, a Matthew Flinders Professor of Chemistry, the
development of sustainable construction materials is becoming more and more
necessary as the manufacturing of cement, iron, and steel is responsible for
more than 15% of annual worldwide CO2 emissions.
In this study, a novel form of brick made from used cooking oil and
combined with sulfur and dicyclopentadiene was put to the test (DCPD).
Sulfur and DCPD are byproducts of the refining of petroleum.
"When a very little amount of amine catalyst is used, the bricks bind
without mortar.
"All of the raw materials are readily available and fall under the category
of industrial waste.
According to the project's director, Professor Chalker, "this research is a
component of a bigger endeavor to move toward a sustainable built
environment."
Clean Earth Technologies is working with the Chalker Lab's new polymer
research team at Flinders University's College of Science and Engineering to
advance development. expansion and potential commercialization
The most recent study, which was featured on the journal Macromolecular
Chemistry and Physics' cover of a special issue on sustainability, expanded
the original investigation to test the new bricks' mechanical qualities and
investigate ways to reinforce them during construction, including using
carbon fiber fillers.
Dr. Maximilian Mann, a research associate at Chalker Lab, claims that the
polymer bricks' sulfur-sulfur bond allows them to be linked together without
mortar, unlike conventional building methods, in addition to recycling waste
resources into value-added construction materials.
According to Dr. Mann, the bonding in this innovative catalytic process is
quite strong, providing a sustainable building material with its own mortar
that might perhaps speed up construction.
The study, according to its first author Paris Pauling, is a superb
illustration of recent advances in the study of sustainable materials.
Story Source:
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