Summary
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The ubiquitous presence of concrete in our built environment is a testament to its strength, availability, versatility, and affordability. Despite these benefits, the production of concrete comes with substantial environmental costs. Notably, the manufacture of cement, the glue in concrete, contributes to over 8% of global CO2 emissions. Incorporating nanoparticles into concrete has led to promising improvements in its performance. However, to date, no nanoparticle additives have successfully introduced self-healing agents into concrete. This team proposes a novel bioinspired solution to pave the way for self-healing concrete technology: embedding within cement synthetic filled particles inspired on viral capsids—the proteinaceous outer shell storing the genetic material of a virus. The University of Miami is ideally positioned to tackle this challenge, bolstered by the expertise of Dr. Luis Ruiz Pestana and Dr. Antoni Luque, whose combined knowledge spans the critical domains of concrete chemistry, mechanics of synthetic nanostructured materials, and viral assembly. Bridging their distinct yet complementary domains effectively and promptly calls for an advanced collaborative tool that transcends traditional research paradigms. |
Team
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Luis Ruiz Pestana (Civil, Architectural a& Enviromental Engineering), Antoni Luque Santolaria (Biology)
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