Magnesia-Phosphate Cement (MPC) and MPC-Based Functional Materials
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction and Building Materials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 October 2023) | Viewed by 7813
Special Issue Editor
Interests: future cements (cement efficiency enhancing strategies, novel supplementary cementitious materials, and alternative cements); solid waste upcycling; massive CO2 capture, utilization, and mineralization; thermal energy storage and micro-grid integration; materials characterization; multi-scale modeling; concrete durability; NDT and sensing; nano- and biological technologies in construction; and carbon-negative recovery of critical minerals (e.g., Ni, Co, Li, and Cu)
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Against the backdrop of Industry 4.0, which accentuates the customization of products and flexible manufacturing, the future cement industry will be one in which a toolkit of cements can be tailored to fulfill specific demands (e.g., cost, performance, and eco-efficiency). Portland cement, which is currently dominating the cement market, will not be able to fulfill all the demands; in particular, the poor eco-efficiency of Portland cement has been driving innovations to seek alternative cements that are either “greener” or manifest higher performance in specific applications. Magnesia–phosphate cement (MPC) is one of the alternative cements in the high-performance track. It can set quickly even at very low temperatures (<-10 ℃), and produce high-strength concrete with little shrinkage and superior durability (e.g., resistance to abrasion, frost, alkali–aggregate reaction, and sulfate attack). Because of these technical merits, MPC has been used in the fast repair of pavement and structures, the encapsulation of nuclear waste and toxic substances (e.g., heavy metals), and a series of other functional applications (e.g., the development of acid-resistant composites for bipolar plates of fuel cells). While MPC has broader applications because of its advantages, its wide-spread application as a general cementitious binder has been limited by several issues. First, MPC is not eco-efficient. The production of dead-burnt MgO from magnesite (not an abundant mineral) is highly energy- and CO2-intensive, and its use of phosphate means it competes for raw materials with agriculture. Therefore, MPC has never been an eco-efficient or cost-effective material. Second, the manipulation of workability (e.g., fluidity and setting time) is not an easy task. Third, MPC-based materials may soften when exposed to long-term immersion in water, because of the mild solubility of reaction products. Fourth, the industry has an anecdotal concern regarding the steel corrosion protectiveness of MPC because of its intrinsically low pH (8-10). To promote the application of MPC as well as to leverage its technical merits to improve the durability and sustainability of infrastructure, future studies are thus needed to: (1) improve the eco-efficiency and lower the cost of MPC by identifying and investigating alternatives to dead-burnt MgO and supplementary cementitious materials for MPC; (2) develop high-efficiency admixtures (e.g., composite retarder) for MPC; (3) address the water-/moisture-stability of MPC-based materials; and (4) prove the compatibility of MPC with steel and other reinforcements.
The topics of interest of the present Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Eco-efficient alternatives to dead-burnt magnesia;
- Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) for MPC;
- Reaction mechanisms, kinetics, and thermodynamics of MPC, especially when SCMs are incorporated;
- Fundamental properties and design theories of MPC;
- MPC admixtures (e.g., retarder, water-reducer, and viscosity modifier);
- Durability of MPC-based materials and structures;
- MPC-based 3D printing;
- MPC-based steel protection and fire retardance;
- MPC-based energy-efficient building materials;
- Reviews of practical applications of MPC in infrastructural engineering.
Dr. Hongyan Ma
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- MPC
- magnesia
- eco-efficiency
- admixtures
- performance
- functional
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