Inorganic Materials and Recycling

Our area of expertise “Inorganic Materials and Recycling” is divided into the two areas of “Building Materials Technology” and “Processing and Recovery,” uniting our know-how in mineralogy and solid state analytics as well as in conservation science and civil engineering. Our research focuses on the development of innovative and sustainable building materials, on processing waste concrete or building rubble and on preserving the substance of historical buildings. In addition to developing concrete formulations tailored to requirements and producing lightweight concrete, insulating materials and fiber-reinforced composites, we also develop cement-free building materials such as geopolymers. All concrete production processes can be carried out in our building materials laboratory - from developing formulations and optimizing mixtures through to determining the properties of fresh and hardened concretes. Another focus of our work lies in assessing the durability of building materials (e.g. their ability to withstand freeze-thaw cycles, alkali silica reaction), as well as in researching into chemical-physical mechanisms which could damage building materials.