A Tough and Sustainable Bioinspired Low-Carbon Building Material Reinforced by Glass Fibers

Abstract

Low-carbon building materials are urgently needed due to the tremendous carbon emissions and energy consumption associated with traditional concrete building materials. However, limited mechanical performance usually restricts the practical applications of current low-carbon building materials, and the massive adhesive utilization can cause their high embodied CO₂. Here, the tough and sustainable bioinspired low-carbon building materials are fabricated by binding sand grains and glass fibers with a small amount of natural-based adhesive (below 3.2 wt.%) at low-temperature and atmospheric pressure. These bioinspired low-carbon building materials possess ultra-low embodied CO₂ of 0.031–0.064 kgCO₂eq kg⁻¹ and embodied energy of 0.29–0.59 MJ kg⁻¹, over one order of magnitude lower than concrete building materials. Additionally, the bioinspired low-carbon building materials are versatile with various grains, such as sand grains, mineral residues etc., and exhibit good mechanical performance that can meet the cement mortar standard. This study provides a promising strategy to design the low-carbon building materials for practical application in next-generation constructions.