The Center for Geopolymer Research and Applications (CeGRA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign creates new geopolymers and geopolymer processing techniques. It also develops new ways to use this emerging class of inorganic polymers of alumino-silicates in fields like:
- Ceramic composite materials made from liquids/pastes under ambient conditions
- Corrosion resistant ceramic coatings on metals
- Refractory adhesives between ceramics and metals
- Power generation from molten salt phase change materials using solar energy
- Water purification using geopolymer derived nano-zeolites
- Rapidly assembled high temperature resistant bushfire shelters
- Rapidly assembled disaster relief shelters
- Geothermal heating or cooling of houses
- Transportation infrastructure
- Construction
- Soil stabilization
- Low energy syntheses of oxides, carbides, nitrides
- Water desalination
Promising as building materials, membranes, and protective coatings, geopolymers are particularly appealing because they can be synthesized, deposited, and set at room temperature, but then take on the strength, durability and high temperatures properties of ceramics. They can also be 3D and 4D printed on-site. They can be mixed and set like cements, but take on the refractory and mechanical properties of ceramics.
These astonishingly versatile materials are exceptionally resistant to extreme environments and settings:
- Heat and cold
- Corrosion
- Acidity
- Radiation
Geopolymers are a more sustainable replacement for traditional cement as well as the silicate composites used in ceramics, because they require much less energy to produce and their production liberates 75 percent less CO2 into the atmosphere that does the fabrication of ordinary Portland cement.
The Center for Geopolymer Research and Applications in Geopolymers is led by Professor Waltraud (Trudy) Kriven of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Email: kriven@illinois.edu
For more information on the Center for Geopolymer Research and Applications (CeGRA), contact Kriven at kriven@illinois.edu
Tel: +1 (217) 333-5258 (office) or +1 (217) 721 7722 (cell)