基本信息
views: 105
Career Trajectory
Bio
Franco Zunino is a scientist and Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) fellow at the Physical Chemistry of Building Materials (PCBM) group since 2022. He obtained his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2020, within the group of Prof. Karen Scrivener. His doctoral thesis was recognized in 2021 with the Nanocem 2020 prize, awarded to the best thesis in the field of cement and concrete science worldwide by a panel of international experts. During the same year, one of his papers was distinguished with the Outstanding Paper 2020 award by the board of editors of the journal Materials and Structures. In 2022, he received the Wason Medal, awarded by the American Concrete Institute (ACI) to the most meritorious paper published in 2021 in their journals. In 2023, he was recognised by RILEM with the Colonnetti Medal for his outstanding contributions to the fields of construction materials and structures.
His research revolves around the development of novel, environmentally friendly cementitious materials with a fundamental scientific approach. Among his interests are advanced, time-resolved characterization methods of cement hydration, interaction of surfaces with polymers in cement paste, microstructural analysis through electron microscopy and optimization of the production process of clinker and supplementary cementitious materials. In 2022 he received an Ambizione fellowship by the SNSF to develop a new generation of low-carbon, high-performance concrete formulations (namely ultra-green concrete). Within this fellowship, he joined the PCBM group to develop and formulate tailor-made admixtures for these materials (doctoral project of Mr. Paolo Camesasca, supervised by Dr. Zunino).
Current Research
Ultra-green concrete project (UGC)
This project, funded through an Ambizione fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), aims at developing a new family of concretes (UGC: ultra-green concrete) to radically reduce the CO2 emissions related to this material, substantially beyond the CO2 savings of any of the technologies currently available. UGC will therefore be the next breakthrough in sustainable technologies for decarbonization of the construction industry, saving at least 800 Mt of CO2 per year, equivalent to 2% of the total anthropogenic carbon emissions or 20 times the total carbon emissions of Switzerland (20% of the EU emissions).
The project approaches the development of UGC with a novel and innovative two-fold strategy, moving the field of cement and concrete science far beyond its current state-of-the-art to achieve the ambitious carbon-reduction target:
1. Reduce the amount of clinker in cement substantially below 50% (namely UGCement), maximizing the use of mineral additions such as calcined clay and limestone through a fundamental understanding of reaction kinetics and hydrate precipitation that contributes to reduce porosity.
2. Reduce the amount of binder (hydrated paste) below 250 kg/m3 per cubic meter of concrete, bringing together the knowledge gained on UGCement with the development of novel admixture formulations to tackle this challenge.
This project merges the expertise of Dr. Zunino in advanced cement chemistry, hydration mechanisms and characterization techniques with the knowledge and experience available at the PCBM group on admixture molecular design, characterization and optimization. The synergy of capacities between the Dr. Zunino and Prof. Flatt’s group will enable to effectively tackle the scientific challenges related to this project.
Research Interests
Papers共 347 篇Author StatisticsCo-AuthorSimilar Experts
By YearBy Citation主题筛选期刊级别筛选合作者筛选合作机构筛选
时间
引用量
主题
期刊级别
合作者
合作机构
CEMENT AND CONCRETE RESEARCH (2024): 107417
CEMENT AND CONCRETE RESEARCH (2024): 107458
CEMENT & CONCRETE COMPOSITES (2024): 105380
crossref(2023)
Materials and Structuresno. 9 (2023): 1-2
RILEM Technical Letters (2023): 45-58
crossref(2023)
Cement and Concrete Research (2023): 107243-107243
CEMENT AND CONCRETE RESEARCH (2023): 107119-107119
RILEM BookseriesProceedings of the 75th RILEM Annual Week 2021 (2023): 60-64
Load More
Author Statistics
Co-Author
Co-Institution
D-Core
- 合作者
- 学生
- 导师
Data Disclaimer
The page data are from open Internet sources, cooperative publishers and automatic analysis results through AI technology. We do not make any commitments and guarantees for the validity, accuracy, correctness, reliability, completeness and timeliness of the page data. If you have any questions, please contact us by email: report@aminer.cn