Chemistry turns backyard clay into a 3-D printable building material

Researchers in Texas want to build homes and other large structures with 3-D printing but do so with a more environmentally friendly material than concrete. So they developed a 3-D printable material from common clay. ↓↓More info and references below↓↓
Large-scale additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, has drawn attention for its potential to create affordable, quickly constructed structures-like in Austin, Texas, where the technology was recently used to build homes for people experiencing homelessness. But the materials for these projects are typically based on concrete, which has environmental costs: producing concrete generates large amounts of carbon dioxide, and it’s tough to dispose of. Researchers at Texas A&M University led by Sarbajit Banerjee want to replace concrete by developing a chemistry tool kit that can convert local soils into a 3-D printable material. As a case study, the team developed a material based on a common local clay that it optimized for extrusion from a 3-D printer. The researchers made the material by creating a cross-linked siloxane framework that could bind clay particles together. The benefit of such a material, the team says, is that it could reduce the carbon footprint of transporting construction materials long distances.
Read more:
In situ Resource Utilization and Reconfiguration of Soils into Construction Materials for the Additive Manufacturing of Buildings | Frontiers in Materials
www.frontiersi...
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