Understanding Reaction Mechanisms, Kinetics and Structural Evolution in Low-Carbon Cements

水泥是混凝土中的“粘合剂”，是现代文明赖以建立的基础。但这带来了巨大的环境成本-每年从地球上提取的所有材料中有近一半用于混凝土，仅水泥生产就占到了人类造成的二氧化碳排放量的8%。通过用低二氧化碳、碱激发或碱土激活水泥(AAC/AEAC)取代传统的波特兰水泥，我们可以将这些二氧化碳排放减少80%以上。然而，由于难以控制反应、凝结和硬化过程，进而控制水泥的物理性能和性能，工业中对这些低碳水泥的吸收一直很慢。目前对控制这些水泥的反应、凝结和硬化的基本相互作用的了解有限。这在很大程度上是由于用于制造这些水泥的原材料的化学和物理特性存在很大差异，这显著影响了控制物理性能发展的过程。我们的目标是克服这一技术障碍，并提供推动这些低碳水泥在行业内广泛使用的基础知识。本项目旨在通过一系列最先进的表征方法，揭示这些由工业废物和低碳激活剂生产的低碳水泥的组成-结构-性能关系、反应机理和动力学。具体地说，该项目旨在揭示原材料特性以及反应和使用条件的变化如何影响：1)反应机理和动力学，2)组成-结构-性能关系和3)水泥结构和相组合的演变。这将使水泥配方得以优化，以增强可持续性、性能和耐久性，并对推动工业中的广泛实施至关重要。这将有助于推动循环经济，减少二氧化碳排放，并为人类提供尽可能好的机会来缓解气候变化。

Cement is the 'glue' in concrete, and provides the foundation on which modern civilisation is built. But this comes at a huge environmental cost - nearly half of all materials extracted from the Earth annually are used in concrete, and cement production alone accounts for 8% of human-caused CO2 emissions.By replacing traditional Portland cement with low-CO2, alkali-activated or alkaline earth-activated cement (AAC/AEAC), we can reduce these CO2 emissions by more than 80%. However, uptake of these low-carbon cements within industry has been slow, due to difficulty controlling the reaction, setting and hardening processes, which in turn control the physical properties and performance of the cement.There is currently limited understanding of the fundamental interactions that control reaction, setting and hardening of these cements. This is largely due to the wide variation in chemical and physical characteristics of the raw materials used to make these cements, which significantly affect the processes controlling physical property development. We aim to overcome this technological hurdle, and provide the fundamental understanding that will drive widespread use of these low-carbon cements within industry.This project aims to reveal the composition-structure-property relationships, reaction mechanisms and kinetics in these low-carbon cements produced from industrial wastes and low-carbon activators, using an array of state-of-the-art characterisation approaches.Specifically, the project aims to reveal how variation in the characteristics of the raw materials, and the reaction and usage conditions, affect: 1) Reaction mechanisms and kinetics, 2) Composition-structure-property relationships and 3) Evolution of cement structure and phase assemblage. This will enable optimisation of cement formulations for enhanced sustainability, performance and durability, and is crucial to drive widespread implementation in industry. This will help drive a circular economy, reduce CO2 emissions, and give humanity the best possible chance to mitigate climate change.