Last 8th of June 2020, the day before New-Mine’s final network event, ESR Guilherme Ascensão successfully defended his PhD thesis in Civil, Environmental and Materials Engineering. Guilherme obtained a joint PhD combining the ‘traditional’ academic setting with research activities in an industrial company. He was jointly supervised by Dr. Monica Segata and Dr. Alessandro Morbi from the Heidelberg Cement group, and by Professor Yiannis Pontikes and Professor Carlo Pellegrino from KU Leuven and from University of Padova, respectively.
In his work, Guilherme developed multifunctional inorganic polymers (IPs) to be applied in near-zero energy dwellings. These novel construction materials can be produced from vitreous by-products generated during the thermal valorization of low-grade materials recovered form landfill sites. The main outcomes of his work were a plethora of highly performant inorganic polymers with engineered properties along with valuable insights concerning the fundamental factors that influence the production process and final properties of the materials produced.
Guilherme’s work aimed to contribute to increase the maturity of IPs production and established a solid groundwork for further advancements in the field of such of valorization technology.
During his PhD, Guilherme published several peer-reviewed publications from which can be highlighted:
- Ascensão, G., Marchi, M., Segata, M., Faleschini, F., & Pontikes, Y. (2020). Reaction kinetics and structural analysis of alkali activated Fe–Si–Ca rich materials. Journal of Cleaner Production, 246, 119065. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119065
- Ascensão, G., Beersaerts, G., Marchi, M., Segata, M., Faleschini, F., & Pontikes, Y. (2019). Shrinkage and Mitigation Strategies to Improve the Dimensional Stability of CaO-FeOx-Al2O3-SiO2 Inorganic Polymers. Materials, 12(22), 3679. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12223679
- Ascensão, G., et al. (2019). Increasing the dimensional stability of CaO-FeOx-Al2O3-SiO2 alkali-activated materials: on the swelling potential of calcium oxide-rich admixtures. Detritus. https://doi.org/10.31025/2611-4135/2019.13880
Guilherme’s latest article was published in the Journal of Cleaner Production
