How cement “breathes in” and stores millions of tons of CO₂ a year
New analysis provides the first national, bottom-up estimate of cement’s natural carbon dioxide uptake across buildings and infrastructure.
Pompeii offers insights into ancient Roman building technology
MIT researchers analyzed a recently discovered ancient construction site to shed new light on a material that has endured for thousands of years.
Concrete “battery” developed at MIT now packs 10 times the power
Improved carbon-cement supercapacitors could turn the concrete around us into massive energy storage systems.
Creeping crystals: Scientists observe “salt creep” at the single-crystal scale
Device Research Lab study uncovers mechanisms behind a phenomenon that can impact civil engineering, desalination, coatings, membrane design, art conservation, and more.
AI stirs up the recipe for concrete in MIT study
With demand for cement alternatives rising, an MIT team uses machine learning to hunt for new ingredients across the scientific literature.
3 Questions: Making the most of limited data to boost pavement performance
Postdoc Haoran Li describes how the Concrete Sustainability Hub is enabling accessible, fast, and robust pavement decision-making.
Workshop explores new advanced materials for a growing world
Speakers described challenges and potential solutions for producing materials to meet demands associated with data centers, infrastructure, and other technology.
Enabling a circular economy in the built environment
A better understanding of construction industry stakeholders’ motivations can lead to greater adoption of circular practices.
Admir Masic: Using lessons from the past to build a better future
The associate professor of civil and environmental engineering studies ancient materials while working to solve modern problems.
New framework empowers pavement life-cycle decision-making while reducing data collection burden
MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub research presents a streamlined pavement life-cycle assessment framework to enable a large set of stakeholders to conduct environmental analysis of pavements.
With sustainable cement, startup aims to eliminate gigatons of CO₂
Sublime Systems, founded by Professor Yet-Ming Chiang and former postdoc Leah Ellis, has developed a sustainable way to make one of the world’s most common materials.
MIT conductive concrete consortium cements five-year research agreement with Japanese industry
The MIT EC^3 Hub, an outgrowth of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, will develop multifunctional concrete applications for infrastructure.
Cleaning up one of the world’s most commonly used substances
C-Crete, founded by Rouzbeh Savary PhD ’11, has created a cement alternative that could significantly reduce the industry’s carbon dioxide emissions.
Jackson Jewett wants to design buildings that use less concrete
The PhD student is honing algorithms for designing large structures with less material — helping to shrink the construction industry’s huge carbon footprint.
3 Questions: Boosting concrete’s ability to serve as a natural “carbon sink”
MIT CSHub postdoc Damian Stefaniuk unpacks new research to bolster concrete’s natural carbon sequestration potential by adding sodium bicarbonate in mixes.