Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Advanced smart materials for preserving concrete heritage buildings

Despite concrete being the most prominent building material of the twentieth century, the cultural heritage relevance of concrete buildings and the importance of their preservation is not widely recognized. The European Union project InnovaConcrete’s purpose is to develop nanotechnology-based treatments for concrete preservation and to increase citizen awareness around the importance of concrete-based heritage.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Graphic summary of activities related to the advanced materials development and evaluation during the InnovaConcrete project.

References

  1. Concrete needs to lose its colossal carbon footprint. Nature 597, 593–594 (2021).

  2. Zarzuela, R. et al. Producing C-S-H gel by reaction between silica oligomers and portlandite: a promising approach to repair cementitious materials. Cem. Concr. Res. 130, 106008 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Prabhu, A. et al. A patchy particle model for C-S-H formation. Cem. Concr. Res. 152, 106658 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Perko, J. et al. The importance of physical parameters for the penetration depth of impregnation products into cementitious materials: modelling and experimental study. Constr. Build. Mater. 257, 119595 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Decisions Adopted at the 31st Session of the World Heritage Committee. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization https://whc.unesco.org/archive/2007/whc07-31com-24e.pdf (2007).

  6. Zarzuela, R., Luna, M., Carrascosa, L. A. M. & Mosquera, M. J. in Advanced Materials for the Conservation of Stone 259–275 (Springer International Publishing, 2018).

  7. Carrascosa, L. A. M., Zarzuela, R., Badreldin, N. & Mosquera, M. J. A simple, long-lasting treatment for concrete by combining hydrophobic performance with a photoinduced superhydrophilic surface for easy removal of oil pollutants. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 12, 19974–19987 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Waghmare, P. R., Gunda, N. S. K. & Mitra, S. K. Under-water superoleophobicity of fish scales. Sci. Rep. 4, 7454 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Ramírez-Guerrero, G., García-Onetti, J., Chica-Ruiz, J. A. & Arcila-Garrido, M. Social appreciation for the improvement of tourism management of 20th-century heritage: a methodological proposal. Int. J. Cult. Tour. Hosp. Res. 15, 522–546 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The work described in this manuscript has been performed under InnovaConcrete EC project, supported by funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 760858. The authors acknowledge the work carried out by the 29 partners of the InnovaConcrete consortium.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to María J. Mosquera.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Related links

InnovaConcrete: https://www.innovaconcrete.eu/

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mosquera, M.J., Zarzuela, R. & Luna, M. Advanced smart materials for preserving concrete heritage buildings. Nat Rev Mater 8, 74–76 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00531-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00531-z

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing