GREEN BUILDING MATERIALS: A REVIEW OF STATE OF THE ART STUDIES OF INNOVATIVE MATERIALS

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1. INTRODUCTION

This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the latest international publications (2012–2017) regarding innovative and environmentally sustainable materials that reduce the production of pollutants. It is recognised that world construction is responsible for substantial amounts of harmful emissions.

In particular, the survey collected data on new sustainable solutions and innovative materials, such as cement, wood, glass and ceramics that are essential to minimize the environmental impact of buildings on the ecosystem and to reduce the consumption of natural resources.

Therefore, the paper's intent is to give an overview of the current state of the art and research in the field of bio-building, gathering information on the environmental impacts of these innovative materials and listing the benefits that can be obtained with their use.

The findings of this study support the growing importance of green building as a component of the whole construction market and provide a benchmark against which to measure future changes in the industry over time.

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Tunable near-infrared and visible-light transmittance in nanocrystal-in-glass composites.

Anna Llordes, Guillermo Garcia-Garcia, Jaume Gázquez … (2013)

Amorphous metal oxides are useful in optical, electronic and electrochemical devices. The bonding arrangement within these glasses largely determines their properties, yet it remains a challenge to manipulate their structures in a controlled manner. Recently, we developed synthetic protocols for incorporating nanocrystals that are covalently bonded into amorphous materials. This 'nanocrystal-in-glass' approach not only combines two functional components in one material, but also the covalent link enables us to manipulate the glass structure to change its properties. Here we illustrate the power of this approach by introducing tin-doped indium oxide nanocrystals into niobium oxide glass (NbOx), and realize a new amorphous structure as a consequence of linking it to the nanocrystals. The resulting material demonstrates a previously unrealized optical switching behaviour that will enable the dynamic control of solar radiation transmittance through windows. These transparent films can block near-infrared and visible light selectively and independently by varying the applied electrochemical voltage over a range of 2.5 volts. We also show that the reconstructed NbOx glass has superior properties-its optical contrast is enhanced fivefold and it has excellent electrochemical stability, with 96 per cent of charge capacity retained after 2,000 cycles.

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Optically Transparent Wood from a Nanoporous Cellulosic Template: Combining Functional and Structural Performance.

Yuanyuan Li, Qiliang Fu, Shun-Zhang Yu … (2016)

Optically transparent wood (TW) with transmittance as high as 85% and haze of 71% was obtained using a delignified nanoporous wood template. The template was prepared by removing the light-absorbing lignin component, creating nanoporosity in the wood cell wall. Transparent wood was prepared by successful impregnation of lumen and the nanoscale cellulose fiber network in the cell wall with refractive-index-matched prepolymerized methyl methacrylate (MMA). During the process, the hierarchical wood structure was preserved. Optical properties of TW are tunable by changing the cellulose volume fraction. The synergy between wood and PMMA was observed for mechanical properties. Lightweight and strong transparent wood is a potential candidate for lightweight low-cost, light-transmitting buildings and transparent solar cell windows.