New Materials and Technologies for Durability and Conservation of Building Heritage.

The increase in concrete structures' durability is a milestone to improve the sustainability of buildings and infrastructures. In order to ensure a prolonged service life, it is necessary to detect the deterioration of materials by means of monitoring systems aimed at evaluating not only the penetration of aggressive substances into concrete but also the corrosion of carbon-steel reinforcement. Therefore, proper data collection makes it possible to plan suitable restoration works which can be carried out with traditional or innovative techniques and materials. This work focuses on building heritage and it highlights the most recent findings for the conservation and restoration of reinforced concrete structures and masonry buildings.

Self-assembly Processes in Hydrated Montmorillonite by FTIR Investigations.

Experimental findings obtained by FTIR and Raman spectroscopies on montmorillonite-water mixtures at three concentration values are presented. To get some insight into the hydrogen bond network of water within the montmorillonite network, FTIR and Raman spectra have been collected as a function of time and then analyzed following two complementary approaches: An analysis of the intramolecular OH stretching mode in the spectral range of 2700-3900 cm-1 in terms of two Gaussian components, and an analysis of the same OH stretching mode by wavelet cross-correlation. The FTIR and Raman investigations have been carried as a function of time for a montmorillonite-water weight composition (wt%) of 20%-80%, 25%-75%, and 35%-65%, until the dehydrated state where the samples appear as a homogeneous rigid layer of clay. In particular, for both the FTIR and Raman spectra, the decomposition of the OH stretching band into a "closed" and an "open" contribution and the spectral wavelet analysis allow us to extract quantitative information on the time behavior of the system water content. It emerges that, the total water contribution inside the montmorillonite structure decreases as a function of time. However, the relative weight of the ordered water contribution diminishes more rapidly while the relative weight of the disordered water contribution increases, indicating that a residual water content, characterized by a highly structural disorder, rests entrapped in the montmorillonite layer structure for a longer time. From the present study, it can be inferred that the montmorillonite dehydration process promotes the layer self-assembly.

Binders alternative to Portland cement and waste management for sustainable construction-part 1.

This review presents "a state of the art" report on sustainability in construction materials. The authors propose different solutions to make the concrete industry more environmentally friendly in order to reduce greenhouse gases emissions and consumption of non-renewable resources. Part 1-the present paper-focuses on the use of binders alternative to Portland cement, including sulfoaluminate cements, alkali-activated materials, and geopolymers. Part 2 will be dedicated to traditional Portland-free binders and waste management and recycling in mortar and concrete production.

Binders alternative to Portland cement and waste management for sustainable construction - Part 2.

The paper represents the "state of the art" on sustainability in construction materials. In Part 1 of the paper, issues related to production, microstructures, chemical nature, engineering properties, and durability of mixtures based on binders alternative to Portland cement were presented. This second part of the paper concerns the use of traditional and innovative Portland-free lime-based mortars in the conservation of cultural heritage, and the recycling and management of wastes to reduce consumption of natural resources in the production of construction materials. The latter is one of the main concerns in terms of sustainability since nowadays more than 75% of wastes are disposed of in landfills.