Engineers at RMIT University have developed a method to use disposable personal protective equipment (PPE) to make concrete stronger, providing an innovative way to significantly reduce pandemic-generated waste.
The RMIT team is the first to investigate the feasibility of recycling three key types of PPE — isolation gowns, face masks and rubber gloves — into concrete.
Published in the journals
Inspired by the way termites build their nests, researchers at Caltech have developed a framework to design new materials that mimic the fundamental rules hidden in nature’s growth patterns. The researchers showed that, using these rules, it is possible to create materials designed with specific programmable properties.
The research, led by Chiara Daraio, G. Bradford Jones Professor of Mechanical Engineering
There is an entire aqueous universe hidden within the tiny pores of many natural and engineered materials. Research from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has shown that when such materials are submerged in liquid, the chemistry inside the tiny pores — known as nanopores — can differ critically from that in the bulk solution.… Read More
Environmental sensors are a step closer to simultaneously sniffing out multiple gases that could indicate disease or pollution, thanks to a Penn State collaboration. Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics in the College of Engineering, and Lauren Zarzar, assistant professor of chemistry in Eberly College of Science, and their teams combined laser writing and responsive sensor … Read More
A genome engineering-based systematic strategy for developing phage resistant Escherichia coli strains has been successfully developed through the collaborative efforts of a team led by Professor Sang Yup Lee, Professor Shi Chen, and Professor Lianrong Wang. This study by Xuan Zou et al. was published in Nature Communications in August 2022 and featured in Nature Communications Editors’ Highlights. The collaboration … Read More
The strength of steel makes it one of the most robust materials known to man. When galvanized with zinc (Zn), it becomes more resistant to corrosion. This makes it an economical choice to use in construction and infrastructure.
In the last decade, Zn reserves have fallen appreciably, forcing us to switch to using Zn alloys. Magnesium (Mg) is the most
