Key Impacts
Mission
To provide novel research and implementation resources on multifunctional cement-based solutions that foster transition and empower communities to achieve a low-carbon future at scale.
Vision
Multifunctional cement-based materials will be the cornerstone of resilient, equitable, and low-carbon infrastructure systems and buildings.
Sustainability
Multifunctional concrete: A key to the sustainability solution
Cement-based materials like concrete are among the most produced materials in the world. For the foreseeable future, these materials will be necessary to meet our societies’ exponentially increasing needs for buildings and infrastructure. There is a considerable opportunity to integrate additional functionalities in these materials, helping to offset their emissions.
One opportunity identified by the MIT ec3 hub is to integrate widely-available carbon black into cement-based materials’ mixes, allowing them to serve as cement-based superconductors. This presents a scalable, cost-effective alternative to energy storage technologies that rely on scarce resources such as lithium. This is critical as we transition to renewable energy sources like solar, which are intermittent and therefore require energy storage for power to continue flowing.
Improving pedestrian and driver safety
Snow and ice make travelling on pavements—whether roads or sidewalks—more hazardous. Pedestrians may have trouble navigating or lose their grip on these surfaces, limiting the mobility of those with disabilities in particular. Vehicles have less traction in these conditions, making braking, turning, and accelerating more difficult. Current deicing techniques like salting roads can cause damage to vehicles and nearby ecosystems. The ec3 hub is investigating how cement-based supercapacitors can be used as pavements that have current run through them to generate heat. These self-heating pavements could improve safety and environmental performance while conserving municipal resources.
Fundamental Science
Investigating the science of carbon-cement supercapacitors
In partnership with the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, the MIT ec3 Hub investigates the fundamental science behind cement-based supercapacitors. Using analysis techniques like Raman spectroscopy, the consortium studies the texture of the carbon network in electrodes and their capacitance properties. Understanding both is necessary to deploy ec3 as an energy storage solution at scale.
Why study cement-based supercapacitors?
A combination of widely-available ingredients—cement, water, carbon black, and electrolyte—cement-based supercapacitors present a scalable, cost-effective alternative to energy storage solutions such as batteries which rely on scarce materials. This is critical as we transition to renewable energy sources like solar, which are intermittent and therefore require energy storage for power to continue flowing. These supercapacitors can also be leveraged to create self-heating pavements capable of deicing themselves to improve safety and environmental performance while lessening demands on municipal resources.
From Chanut et al. (2023): (1) An electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) composed of (2) two polished, electrolyte saturated carbon-cement electrodes (thickness d) separated by (3) a glassy fiber membrane soaked in the same electrolyte (1M KCl), and covered by (4) conductive graphite paper. The electrodes are (5) prestressed in (6) a closed cell to improve contact between the charge collectors and the electrodes (1, 3).