Engineering Low-Carbon Cement-based Materials at the Molecular Level

I am a material scientist with a strong interest in the physics, chemistry, and mechanics of construction materials. In my research, advanced experimental characterization methods and novel simulation approaches are combined to explore the physicochemical phenomena occurring at the nanoscale and microscale to develop high-performance engineering materials for the construction industry. In this presentation, I will first show two examples of molecular-level understanding of the degradation of cement hydrates and carbonation reactions through multiscale experiment characterization techniques and steered reactive molecular simulations. Next, I will show my research program in the spirit of our bottom-up computation-guided molecular engineering framework. With the large toolbox built into the framework, we will be able to engineer the low-carbon cement-based materials at the molecular level across their life cycle.