Nanostructured Metal Oxide Semiconductors towards Greenhouse Gas Detection

Climate change and global warming are two huge current threats due to continuous anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the Earth’s atmosphere. Accurate measurements and reliable quantifications of GHG emissions in air are thus of primary importance to the study of climate change and for taking mitigation actions. Therefore, the detection of GHGs should be the first step when trying to reduce their concentration in the environment. Throughout recent decades, nanostructured metal oxide semiconductors have been found to be reliable and accurate for the detection of many different toxic gases in air. Thus, the aim of this article is to present a comprehensive review of the development of various metal oxide semiconductors, as well as to discuss their strong and weak points for GHG detection

Damage Management of Concrete Structures with Engineered Cementitious Materials and Natural Fibers: A Review of Potential Uses

The importance of the safety and sustainability of structures has attracted more attention to the development of smart materials. The presence of small cracks (<300 µm in width) in concrete is approximately inevitable. These cracks surely damage the functionality of structures, increase their degradation, and decrease their sustainability and service life. Self-sensing cement-based materials have been widely assessed in recent decades. Engineers can apply piezoresistivity for structural health monitoring that provides timely monitoring of structures, such as damage detection and reliability analysis, which consequently guarantees the service life with low maintenance costs. However, concrete piezoresistivity is limited to compressive stress sensing due to the brittleness of concrete. In contrast, engineered cementitious composites (ECC) present excellent tensile ductility and deformation capabilities, making them able to sense tensile stress/strain. Therefore, in this paper, first, the ability of ECC to partly replace transverse reinforcements and enhance the joint shear resistance, the energy absorption capacity, and the cracking response of concrete structures in seismic areas is reviewed. Then, the potential use of natural fibers and cellulose nanofibers in cementitious materials is investigated. Moreover, steel and carbon fibers and carbon black, carbon nanotubes, and graphene, all added as conductive fillers, are also presented. Finally, among the conductive carbonaceous materials, biochar, the solid residue of biomass waste pyrolysis, was recently investigated to improve the mechanical properties, internal curing, and CO2 capture of concrete and for the preparation of self-sensing ECC

Experimental investigation on the ability of macro-encapsulated polyurethane to resist cyclic damaging actions in self-repaired cement-based elements

The use of polymer precursors as repairing agents in capsule-based self-healing systems has been extensively studied in recent years. In particular, the effectiveness of macro-encapsulated polyurethane in restoring both watertightness and mechanical properties has been demonstrated at the laboratory level, and the experimental methods to test the effectiveness have been validated following pre-standard procedures. However, the use of macro-capsules containing polyurethane precursors for field applications has not been sufficiently implemented yet. For these systems to become appealing to the construction industry, it is essential to further characterize the self-healing effect in terms of stability in time, namely, to investigate the behavior of the self-healing system when subjected to recurring actions that can affect structures in time, after cracking and subsequent self-repairing. The goal of this study was to characterize the ability of commercial polyurethane foams to withstand cyclic flexural actions and repeated temperature variations after release from cementitious macro-capsules embedded in mortar specimens. The specimens were tested immediately after pre-cracking and self-repairing to characterize the initial sealing efficiency through a water-flow test. The same test was repeated at prescribed time intervals to analyze the evolution of the sealing efficiency with the applied mechanical and thermal stresses. The results showed that the proposed system has good stability against the selected damaging actions and confirmed the potential of encapsulated polyurethane for self-healing applications

Carbon-based materials for humidity sensing: a short review

Humidity sensors are widespread in many industrial applications, ranging from environmental and meteorological monitoring, soil water content determination in agriculture, air conditioning systems, food quality monitoring, and medical equipment to many other fields. Thus, an accurate and reliable measurement of water content in dierent environments and materials is of paramount importance. Due to their rich surface chemistry and structure designability, carbon materials have become interesting in humidity sensing. In addition, they can be easily miniaturized and applied in flexible electronics. Therefore, this short review aims at providing a survey of recent research dealing with carbonaceous materials used as capacitive and resistive humidity sensors. This work collects some successful examples of devices based on carbon nanotubes, graphene, carbon black, carbon fibers, carbon soot, and more recently, biochar produced from agricultural wastes. The pros and cons of the dierent sensors are also discussed in the present review

Sustainable Public Procurement in the Building Construction Sector

Considering that in the E.U. public procurement in the construction sector is highly represented, the Directive 2014/24/EU is implemented for harmonizing procurement processes across European countries. The Directive is transposed in Italy, through the Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) national action plan, for supporting public procurement and public–private partnership (PPP) interventions. SPP is founded on two pillars: according to an economic viewpoint, the financial efficiency is the key aspect to verify, and, according to a sustainability viewpoint, externalities are a key element in the environmental evaluation, despite the fact that their monetary quantification into the global cost calculation is quite complex. Thus, this work aims to explore a methodology for the joint evaluation of economic–environmental sustainability of project options, in the tender evaluation phase of the SPP. The methodology is based on the life cycle costing (LCC) and CO2 emissions joint assessment, including criteria weighting and uncertainty components. Two alternative technologies—a timber and an aluminum window frame—are assumed as a case for a simulation, implemented with the software “Smart SPP LCC-CO2 Tool” (developed through the research “Smart SPP—Innovation through sustainable procurement”, supported by Intelligent Energy Europe). The simulation demonstrates that the methodology is a fast and effective modality for selecting alternative options, introducing sustainability in the decision-making process. The work is a contribution to the growing literature on the topic, and for giving support to subjects (public authorities and private operators) involved in public procurement processes/PPP interventions

WO3-Doped Indium Oxide Thick Films for Ozone Detection at Low Temperature

Ozone, a strong oxidizing gas, has dramatically increased its concentration in the troposphere during the last decades. Since high O3 concentrations are hazardous to human health, the development of effective methods and economic devices to detect this gas is an urgent need. In this frame, In2O3 is well known as an n-type ozone sensitive and selective material, generally displaying its optimal sensing capability in the temperature range 200–350 °C. To enhance the sensing capability of In2O3 and to decrease its operative temperature, in this work, commercial In2O3 powders were doped with 2.5 wt. % WO3. Pure and doped-In2O3 materials were used to develop sensing devices by screen-printing technology. Resistance measurements were performed in the temperature range 25 °C–150 °C under 200–500 ppb O3. Best results were obtained at 75 °C with sensor’s responses as high as 40 under 200 ppb of ozone

Biochar for gas sensors devices

In recent years, biochar applications are present in many fields [1]. It has been studied as substitution for more expensive carbon materials like carbon nanotubes, graphene and others. The evident advantage for biochar is its low cost of production, being an environmentally friendly source of huge carbon content. On the other hand, nowadays the main application of this material is as field amendment in agriculture [2]. Starting for the peculiarity of biochar, it is possible to modify its features. For instance, after high temperature treatments, its surface area can increase sharply. Please click on the file below for full content of the abstract

influence of pyrolysis parameters on the efficiency of the biochar as nanoparticles into cement based composites

Abstract In this research, a particular kind of biochar provided by UK Biochar Centre has been added as nanoparticles into cementitious composites. Its principle characteristic lies in the standardization of its process production, that makes it suitable to been used as filler in cement-matrix composites, ensuring the reproducibility of the cement mix (I. Cosentino "The use of Bio-char for sustainable and durable concrete", 2017). The pyrolysis parameters and the content of carbon in the standardized biochar influenced its efficiency to enhance the mechanical properties of the cement composites: the results, in terms of flexural strength and fracture energy, have been worse than those obtained in previous studies (L. Restuccia "Re-think, Re-use: agro-food and C&D waste for high-performance sustainable cementitious composites", 2016), in which particles have been produced with higher temperature. However, also with standardized biochar a general enhancement of mechanical properties has been recorded, a sign that they can be used to create new green building materials