Ricerc@Sapienza

Background and aim of the work: The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 is a strong reminder that the lockdown period has changed the way that people and communities live, work, and interact, and it’s necessary to make resilient the built environment, both outdoor and mainly the indoor spaces: housing, workplaces, public buildings, and entertainment facilities. How can we re-design the concept of Well-being and Public Health in relation to the living places of the future?

The paper represents the “state of the art” on sustainability in construction materials. In Part 1 of the paper, issues related to production, microstructures, chemical nature, engineering properties, and durability of mixtures based on binders alternative to Portland cement were presented. This second part of the paper concerns the use of traditional and innovative Portland-free lime-based mortars in the conservation of cultural heritage, and the recycling and management of wastes to reduce consumption of natural resources in the production of construction materials.

In this work, hyperspectral imaging in the short wave infrared range (SWIR: 1000-2500 nm) coupled with chemometric techniques was evaluated as an analytical tool to detect and classify different asbestos minerals, such as amosite ((Fe2+)2(Fe2+,Mg)5Si8O22(OH)2)), crocidolite (Na2(Mg,Fe)6Si8O22(OH)2) and chrysotile (Mg3(Si2O5)(OH)4), contained in cement matrices. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used for data exploration and Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogies (SIMCA) for sample classification.

This review presents “a state of the art” report on sustainability in construction materials. The authors propose different solutions to make the concrete industry more environmentally friendly in order to reduce greenhouse gases emissions and consumption of non-renewable resources. Present paper (Part 1) focuses on the use of binders alternative to Portland cement, including sulfoaluminate cements, alkali-activated materials, and geopolymers.