The Pole made concrete like jelly. It gives amazing results
The Pole developed concrete that is more durable and retains heat better than aerated concrete. To achieve this, he decided to use potato starch, thanks to which he created a unique… jelly.
It turns out that cement paste combined with starch in the process of mixing and then heating allows it to be created unique building material. Dr. Eng. is working on it. Jarosław Strzałkowski from the West Pomeranian University of Technology. So far, in the case of aerated concrete, good thermal insulation properties were achieved by aerating the entire material with aluminum powder, which made the material porous. However, the researcher from Szczecin decided to use gelation, which has not been used for such solutions so far. The effect exceeded our wildest expectations.
Epic. Simple and brilliant
When creating “his” cement mixture, Dr. Strzałkowski used a phenomenon known to everyone who is a fan of jelly. In its simplest form it goes like this above a certain temperature, the water-starch suspension turns into a gel. This substance is the skeleton around which cement bonds. After hardening, it becomes homogeneous a material with high porosity providing good thermal insulation properties.
The scientist also points out that this technology can be used in the case of gypsum binder, thanks to which the new technology can also be used in the production of plasterboards. The gel concrete is expected to have a strength of almost 10 MPa (megapascals). For comparison, the typical value of this indicator for aerated concrete is 4-5 MPa. So approx twice less!
According to Dr. Strzałkowski, an even larger scale of research is necessary, but it can already be said that the differences, for example in heat conduction, are very significant. The measurements showed that this coefficient was 60-70% better than previous solutions. The research team also announces further tests to check, among other things resistance of the new material to water. If all experiments are successful, perhaps in a few years it will be possible to start mass production of such gelling concrete.
