UTILIZATION OF GRAPHENE OXIDE IN BUILDING MATERIALS

Abstract

Cement-based materials (CBM) is one of the most commonly used building materials. Due to their brittle nature (sudden failure, low tensile strength, low resistant to crack), CBMs were modified through the addition of various traditional fillers/ reinforcement such as fibres and supplementary cementutious materials. Advanced modifiers/fillers such as Graphene-based nanomaterials (GBM) were utilized due to their superior properties in upgrading properties of CBM. GBM have been firstly used to enhance various polymeric matrices for storage energy, sensors and bio-applications. Following that, GBM were utilized in CBM with remarkable improvements in properties. In the current paper, an overview on the synthesis and structure of one type of GBM; namely graphene oxide (GO) was presented. The impact of GO on properties of CBM was addressed. One of the most observations from the highlighted published work was that the enhancements in CBM properties were linked to the uniform dispersion of functionalized GO and template effect of GO in CBM. Although GO with its attractive properties in upgrading properties of CBM, the usage of GO in construction industry is still not at the same demand level as in other applications and further investigations are needed in this regard.