CLEANER CEMENT, COOLER TOOLS

Nanotechnology is also beginning to create carbon nanostructures that make transportation more efficient.

Scientists look closely and find metal putty and cleaner cement; Understanding how nanoparticles are packed together leads to new discoveries
Robert C. Cowen, April 26, 2007 (Christian Science Monitor)

WHO
Nanotechnologists Franz-Josef Ulm, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bartosz Grzybowski, Northwestern University

WHAT
Using the capacity to observe submicroscopic particles to lower the production of greenhouse gas in the manufacture of cement and metal products.
Cement microstructures
WHEN
Ulm’s study was reported in January. Grzybowski’s study was in the current “Science.”

WHERE
MIT is in Boston. Northwestern is in Evanston, Illionois. The manufacturing processes the studies reported on are universal.

WHY
- Cement is made now the same way it was during Roman times: Crushed limestone and clay, heated to 1500 C., are mixed with water to get calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H). Cement + sand/gravel=concrete. Nanoparticle analysis shows C-S-H stacks in two ways. Ulm’s study suggests that by substituting magnesium for calcium, a cement could be made using the same types of stacking at a much lower temperature, thereby consuming less fuel and producing 10% less CO2.
- Manufacture of metal and metal alloy tools and equipment requires high heat to mold the raw material. Grzybowski’s study suggests there is a way to bond nanoparticles into a putty-like material which can be shaped into a useful tool, like a gear, and then hardened at low, non-CO2 producing temperatures.
spokesmodel for Grzybowski’s lab
QUOTES
- Ulm: The current manufacture of cement produces “…a waste material that people must pay to dispose of."
- Ulm: This research it the "…identification of the geogenomic code of materials."