Polymer bricks from industrial waste are securely bonded without cement

Researchers from Flinders University (Australia) have developed technology to create a universal building material based on polymers, the production of which does not generate a carbon footprint. Thanks to this, it will be a useful alternative to concrete and cement, the manufacture of which generates a huge amount of emissions into the atmosphere. This polymer brick does not need mortar for fixing in the masonry, it itself reliably bonds with neighboring bricks.

The technology is based on methods of recycling sulfur, which is currently a waste product in various industrial processes. Australian scientists have taken sulfur and dicyclopentadiene - products of oil refining - and mixed them with rapeseed oil. They made a new polymer that is heated to form it into bricks of a suitable size.

The main feature of this material is that treatment with an amine-based catalyst triggers a "sulfur-sulfur" bond in the polymer. The substance in neighboring bricks is rearranged and becomes, in fact, one whole after the catalyst is evaporated. The resulting compound is stronger than cement mortar or construction glue, polymeric bricks are hydrophobic and resistant to various weather conditions.

Australian scientists have also produced a trial version of polymer bricks filled with carbon fiber, which increased the strength of the material by 16 times. They are currently working with Clean Earth Technologies to meet the challenge of starting mass production of such bricks.