Sprinkle in a bit of chemical additive, and a small amount of cement can combine with large quantities of industrial waste residue to become a new type of high-performance concrete. Recently, Ran Qianping, a recipient of the latest Nanjing Top Ten Science and Technology Stars award and chief engineer of Jiangsu Bote New Materials Co., Ltd., developed a polymer chemical additive expected to increase the seismic resistance of concrete by 20%–30%.

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Cement processing

　　Ran Qianping said that in the past, when there were no super high-rise buildings like today's, simply using more manpower and grinding the cement finer could meet the compressive strength requirements of buildings. However, this traditional concrete production method could only improve the compressive strength of buildings in the early stages of construction, and the compressive effect was greatly reduced in later stages. Moreover, statistics show that producing 1 ton of cement requires burning 100 kilograms of coal and emits 750 kilograms of carbon dioxide, so concrete production faces a huge test in environmental protection.

　　The reporter saw that this new type of admixture is in liquid form—some look like cola, some like Sprite, and some are even completely transparent like water. Ran Qianping said that these colorful admixtures are not only non-toxic, but with just a small amount added, they can combine with large quantities of industrial waste residue to form a new type of concrete with higher compressive strength. Among them, cement will account for only 20% of the total raw materials, while the remaining 80% uses industrial waste residue, which not only saves cement consumption but also turns industrial waste into treasure and reduces carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide emissions. In addition, any emergency at the construction site can be handled by changing the function of the admixture for adjustment. For example, when concrete has to be transported over too long a distance, adding a water-reducing agent can stabilize its flow state; for buildings with high requirements for crack resistance and waterproofing, adding an expanding agent makes it less prone to shrinkage and cracking, and so on.

　　Ran Qianping revealed that the series of polymer chemical admixtures developed earlier have been applied to a large number of key national projects such as the Three Gorges Dam, Tianwan Nuclear Power Station, and the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway, and have also been used in our city's Xuanwu Lake Tunnel, Jiuhua Mountain Tunnel, the subway, and almost all high-rise buildings. This newly developed admixture can make concrete tougher, and its seismic resistance is expected to increase by 20%–30%.