Sustainable, Self-Healing, and Eco-Friendly Construction Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Natural resources from around the planet are required for the basic needs of human societies. Therefore, extracting and processing these resources is necessary. However, materials and products lose their functionality after being used, ending up as waste often burned or landfilled. An increase in material productivity is achieved by elaborating various looping opportunities within the lifecycle of materials. The development of green materials and the improvement of their functional and self-healing properties contribute greatly to enhancing their impact on the environment, where materials science can be used in several approaches, such as recycling, developing green and self-healing materials, and developing functional materials that have more than one use at the same time.

The construction industry is responsible for over 30% of the extraction of natural resources, as well as 25% of solid waste generated in the world, using materials for the construction of buildings and disposing them at the end of their life since they are assembled for one use and do not retain potential for reuse, self-healing, or multiuse. Over the last few decades, a paradigm shift has been occurring in the industry at large, with the adoption of a sustainable and green construction technology that aims at maintain the maximum value of materials, with a greater potential of reducing waste generation and resource extraction for the construction industry. The goal of this Special Issue is to develop functional, self-healing, green, functional, and sustainable materials that use less energy and provide a healthy and comfortable indoor and outdoor environment. Along with a lower environmental impact, the targeted materials are relatively low-cost to run and, in the long term, more valuable.

Sustainable, self-healing, and eco-friendly construction materials provide a platform for research related to the science, engineering, and technologies of materials (reuse, recycle, redesign, remanufacture, reduce, recover), lifecycle engineering, and lifecycle assessment of materials. In the context of the above, the following list of topics reflects the scope of this Special Issue:

• Sustainable and green materials;
• Materials for passive cooling systems;
• Highlights issues related to materials recovery and self-healing materials;
• Transforming waste material into a useful product with economical value;
• Development of novel materials from sustainable sources;
• Production and consumption, waste management, and secondary raw materials;
• Functional materials and ecodesign;
• Natural fiber-based composites.

Dr. Mazen Alshaaer
Dr. Slávka Andrejkovičová
Guest Editors

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• sustainable construction
• self-healing materials
• green materials
• functional materials
• geopolymers
• natural fibers