Iranian Experts Utilize Nanotechnology to Help Remove Challenges Facing Concrete Industry

"There are currently many challenges in the nanotechnology sector of the concrete industry,” said Mohammad Mehdi Foroughi, the head of the laboratory and workshop services center of the Islamic Azad University, Kerman branch.

Like all new technologies, this sector also needs economic justification, he added.

For the time being, the high costs of nanoparticles prevent the increasing development of these products and their use in the industry, he added.

Recently, nanotechnology has been discovered to have a wide range of uses in the building industry. Coating, concrete, glass, steel, bricks, and insulation all utilize nanomaterials.

In concrete buildings, there has been shown the potential to boost longevity, tensile stability, and mechanical strength, lowering maintenance costs and eliminating the need for immediate replacement through the use of nanotechnology.

However, the use of nanotechnology in the concrete industry on a commercial scale is still limited to a few products available in the market, Foroughi highlighted.

Another problem is the uniform distribution of nanoparticles in the concrete, he said, adding that these materials are usually accumulated in the form of lumps while being added to concrete and are not well distributed in the mixture.

Of course, to solve this problem, powerful mixers can be used, he noted.

The very high amount of water absorption of nanoparticles is another problem in this field. Due to their very large specific surface, these particles absorb a lot of water, which may affect the performance of concrete.

Foroughi went on to say that there are other challenges such as uniform distribution of nanomaterials, compatibility of nanomaterials with cement, processing, production, safety, transportation issues, mass production, and costs, that need to be solved before expanding the use of nanotechnology in the concrete industry.

“The research group at the Islamic Azad University has been able to solve some of the challenges of the concrete industry by synthesizing new nanoparticles,” Foroughi added.

Studying the morphology of nanoparticles on the performance of concrete and cement materials is one of the tasks of the research group.

The research team presented the results of the study at Islamic Azad University’s Asreh Omid Event which was held in late May in Tehran’s Grand Mosalla with the participation of 3,000 knowledge-based companies, laboratories, research teams, and startups.

The study entitled "The impact of nanotechnology on concrete" aims to communicate with other participants and exchange information to move towards solving issues and challenges related to technology.

Iran currently ranks 4th in the world in the production of nano-science. This comes as part of Iran's Nanotechnology Initiative Council’s first development plan, which has sought to advance nano-science in the country.

The second 10-year plan, which started in 2015, seeks to move nano-science from paper to the industry. In the meantime, the Nanotechnology Initiative Council is working on a third plan to trade Iranian nano-products in the global market.

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