Chinese scientists create low-carbon building materials inspired by worms
- Team looked to the underwater structures built by sandcastle worms, which secrete a glue that binds together sand and shell pieces
- They say their materials – made from grains including sand, coal cinder and brick rubble – meet compression standards for construction
Chinese researchers say they have created natural, low-carbon building materials from grains including sand and brick rubble – and they were inspired by the underwater structures built by sandcastle worms.
The marine creatures, which are about 5cm (2 inches) long and found along the Californian coast, make their honeycomb-like colonies by cementing grains of sand together.
Based on this idea, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry in Beijing say they have developed an alternative to conventional building materials.
Writing in the peer-reviewed journal Matter on September 20, they said there was an urgent need for low-carbon options due to the “massive energy consumption and carbon emissions” of traditional materials.
Materials used in construction – such as concrete, glass, steel, bricks and aluminium – accounted for an estimated 9 per cent of overall global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2021, according to the UN-hosted Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction.
These emissions are produced when the materials are processed – for example burning fossil fuels to high temperatures during the process of creating cement.
While natural alternatives to cement are more eco-friendly they also tend to have “weak mechanical properties”, according to the researchers.
They looked to sandcastle worms to get around this problem. The worms secrete an adhesive that binds together sand and shell pieces to make their sandcastle colonies.