materials-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Environmentally Friendly Materials in Construction, Volume II

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction and Building Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 2801

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Sustainable and Circular Construction, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Kosice, Košice, Slovakia
Interests: heavy metals’ leachability from concrete; durability of materials; environmental evaluation of materials; environmental chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Older buildings consume an excessive amount of energy and produce too much waste. Their operation is also linked with the consumption of about 25% of the world’s water and 40% of its resources, while creating one-third of all waste and 40% of global carbon emissions. Despite these statistics related to buildings’ unsustainability, buildings have a huge untapped potential to become a key part of the solution to urgent sustainability challenges. One of the important ways to improve the sustainability of buildings is to produce environmentally friendly materials and to design new eco-friendly building constructions. New eco-friendly designs of buildings based on the construction of environmentally friendly materials can improve human health, safety, comfort, and productivity in the current conditions of climate change. Environmentally friendly materials must become part of a sustainable world building design because their production and use could minimize the negative environmental impacts. These impacts are represented by climate change, ozone-layer depletion, acidification of soil and water, resource exhaustion, and human toxicity in connection to indoor and outdoor air pollution. Therefore, it is very important to include sustainability ideas into products, operations, and research and development in order to apply the best available technologies and produce materials/products that leave a smaller negative environmental footprint in the process. Life-cycle analysis (LCA) offers a useful and widely accepted methodology for the assessment of the ecofriendly sustainability and environmental performance of buildings. We invite you to submit high-quality research or review papers to this Special Issue, with an emphasis on new environmentally friendly building materials (concrete, mortars, plasters, bricks, insulating, and hybrid materials) and technologies. Some areas of interest for this Special Issue include but are not limited to the environmental benefits of composites incorporating alternative substances and fiber-reinforced biocomposites.

This Special Issue is the continuation of a very successful previous Special Issue with the same focus. Papers aimed at environmentally acceptable composition of materials in construction, designing environmentally friendly construction buildings and the environmental assessment of building materials, constructions, and buildings will be welcome. Papers will be accepted for this Special Issue after going through a rigorous peer-review procedure.

Prof. Dr. Adriana Estokova
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • building materials with a low carbon footprint
  • environmentally safe building materials
  • low-energy building materials
  • low-emitting building materials
  • new environmentally friendly technologies
  • composites with incorporated alternative substances
  • recycled and waste-incorporated building materials
  • optimized design of environmentally friendly construction
  • advanced building strategies in creating environmentally friendly structures
  • environmental assessment of building materials, structures, and buildings

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

18 pages, 4116 KiB  
Article
Life Cycle Assessment Comparison between an Earthbag Building and a Conventional Sahrawi Cement Blocks Building
by Ariadna Carrobé, Albert Castell and Ingrid Martorell
Materials 2024, 17(5), 1011; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17051011 - 22 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1225
Abstract
Growing environmental awareness has prompted a resurgence in traditional building techniques that rely on natural or recycled materials since many believe that structures made from these resources are ecologically friendly. Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for construction materials offers valuable insights into the [...] Read more.
Growing environmental awareness has prompted a resurgence in traditional building techniques that rely on natural or recycled materials since many believe that structures made from these resources are ecologically friendly. Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for construction materials offers valuable insights into the impacts produced during their production and construction processes. This study aims to assess the environmental impacts of two different constructions—an Earthbag Building (EB) and a conventional Sahrawi Cement Blocks Building (CBB). It also determines whether it is more environmentally beneficial to construct traditionally, utilizing local materials and aligning with the principles of the circular economy, which is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Europe. This study specifically examines a cradle-to-gate LCA, using the software Simapro v. 9.4.0.1. Results show that in 21 out of the 22 impact categories analyzed, the CBB performs worse, in some cases presenting an impact of 70% higher than the EB. The highest impact is obtained for fine particulate matter formation and Global Warming related to Human Health categories, whilst impact categories related to water consumption and eutrophication obtained an impact of less than 0.001 for both constructions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmentally Friendly Materials in Construction, Volume II)
Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 4731 KiB  
Article
Effect of Surface Hydrophilized Plastic Waste Aggregates Made by Mixing Various Kinds of Plastic on Mechanical Properties of Mortar
by Kyung-Min Kim and Young-Keun Cho
Materials 2024, 17(1), 247; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17010247 - 2 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1092
Abstract
The surface hydrophilization of mixed plastic waste aggregates (MPAs) was conducted to improve the bond between an MPA and the surrounding cement matrix using two types of coating agents: a silicone amine resin and acrylic binders. The coating agents formed a physical bond [...] Read more.
The surface hydrophilization of mixed plastic waste aggregates (MPAs) was conducted to improve the bond between an MPA and the surrounding cement matrix using two types of coating agents: a silicone amine resin and acrylic binders. The coating agents formed a physical bond with the MPAs, and the results of contact angle measurement also revealed that the surface of MPAs was hydrophilic. The workability of a mortar mix increased by up to 1.47 times with the surface hydrophilization of MPAs. Meanwhile, the compressive and flexural strengths of mortar mixes decreased by 29~43% and 72~86%, respectively, at 28 days with the surface hydrophilization of MPAs. Namely, the surface hydrophilization of MPAs was successively conducted, and the workability of mortar mixes was improved accordingly, but the compressive and flexural strengths of mortar mixes decreased as the physical bond was partially separated from not only the MPA but also the surrounding cement matrix and the surface friction was decreased. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmentally Friendly Materials in Construction, Volume II)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop