34th World Nano Conference
Vancouver, Canada
Baoguo Han
Dalian University of Technology, China
Title: Nano-engineered concrete for sustainable infrastructures
Biography
Biography: Baoguo Han
Abstract
Concrete, being the most used human-made substance, has become one of the most obvious manifestations of humankind's physical footprint on the Earth. The use of concrete changes the world, promotes the rapid development of human society, and shapes the human civilization. Moreover, concrete is still indispensable in the foreseeable future, and their application room is constantly expanding.
However, some inherent weaknesses and the existing performances of concrete make it unable to fully meet the demands of constructing and creating future human living infrastructures. Additionally, the massive production and application of concrete have an enormous impact on resources, energy as well as environment on the Earth. Nano science and technology can change the “gene” of concrete at a more fundamental level. It provides a transformative approach to solve the above issues and boosts the emergence and rapid development of Nano-engineered concrete with sustainable characteristics (e.g., high mechanical performance, long service life, perfect multifunctionality/smartness, easy fabrication, low environmental footprint, strong resilience, and low life-cycle cost).
In the past two decades, the rapid development of Nano science and technology build up a fundamental for comprehensively understanding the genomic code of concrete in nature, featuring the blueprint to describe, predict, and tailor performance of concrete from the bottom-up approach, and providing guide for design, fabrication, and applications of concrete. Much work indicated that the big gains in mechanical, durable and functional/smart properties of concrete were achieved by using nanotechnology (i.e., Nano-core effect).
This report will present both fundamentals and applications, with emphasis on the design and principles, fabrications, characterizations, performances (including mechanical properties, durability, function/ intelligence) and mechanisms, and applications of Nano-engineered concrete, deliver current groundbreaking science advances and technical innovations in the field of Nano-engineered concrete, and deploying the road map to tackle the future development challenges of Nano-engineered concrete.