Nikolaos Psychogios, "Electrical characterization of cement Mortars with the addition of Zeolites for sensors and electric energy storage applications", Diploma Work, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece, 2024
https://doi.org/10.26233/heallink.tuc.100016
In modern times, the need to reduce the environmental footprint of human activity, with a simultaneous shift to cleaner forms of energy, is becoming more and more imperative. Among the polluting processes is the production of electricity, which is mainly done through the burning of fossil fuels, causing a significant burden on the environment. The technological progress of the last decades in the field of renewable energy sources and in particular in the field of wind turbines and photovoltaic cells, makes them an efficient and economically viable solution, but the inability to store the electricity produced is an inhibiting factor in their penetration into the energy mix, therefore leading to the need to research storage methods. At the same time, a new subject of research that is developing at a fast pace concerns the field of smart materials, which have the ability to change their behavior or certain characteristics in a controlled way. The creation of such materials includes a combination of sensors, processors and their integration with conventional building materials, in order to detect environmental stimuli, such as changes in temperature and humidity or mechanical loads while maintaining their structural integrity. The existence of a large volume of cement mortar in constructions makes it a potential energy store, while as a material which is part of the structure, it can also be used as an integrated sensor of physical quantities, which describe its current state. This thesis examines whether zeolites, as an admixture element in cement mortars, have the potential to endow them with useful electrical properties, for the purpose of storing electrical energy, or the use of such structures as temperature and humidity sensor devices.