Fabrication of clay soil/CuFe2O4 nanocomposite toward improving energy and shielding efficiency of buildings

Shabnam Keykavous-Amand,Reza Peymanfar

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00347-x

Abstract

In this research, the energy and shielding efficiency of brick, fabricated by clay soil, as a practical building material was reinforced using CuFe2O4 nanoparticles. Initially, the nanoparticles were fabricated using the sol–gel method and then loaded in the brick matrix as a guest. The architected samples were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), diffuse reflection spectroscopy (DRS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermograms, and vector network analyzer (VNA) analyses. IR absorption of the tailored samples was monitored under an IR source using an IR thermometer. IR absorption and energy band gap attested that inserting the nanoparticles in brick medium led to the acceleration of a warming brick, desirable for energy efficiency in cold climates. It is worth noting that the brick/CuFe2O4 nanocomposite achieved a strong reflection loss (RL) of 58.54 dB and gained an efficient bandwidth as wide as 4.22 GHz (RL > 10 dB) with a thickness of 2.50 mm, meanwhile it shielded more than 58% of the electromagnetic waves at X-band by only a filler loading of 10 wt%. The microwave absorbing and shielding characteristics of the composite are mainly originated from conductive loss, electron hopping, natural and exchange resonance, relaxation loss, secondary fields, as well as eddy current loss. Interestingly, the shielding property of the nanocomposite was significantly generated from its absorbing features, reducing the secondary electromagnetic pollutions produced by the shielding materials applying the impedance mismatching mechanism.

Highlights

In this research, the energy and shielding efficiency of brick, fabricated by clay soil, as a practical building material was reinforced using CuFe2O4 nanoparticles
The in-plane and out-of-plane bending vibrations of Si–O–Al and Si–O–Si were confirmed by the overlapped peak observed at 1039 cm−1 the notch at 461 cm−1 attested to the stretching vibration of Si–O and Al–O existing in the b rick[21,24]
This research shows the tip of an iceberg, illustrating the susceptibility of building materials as a matrix to reinforce energy and shielding efficiency

Summary

Introduction

The energy and shielding efficiency of brick, fabricated by clay soil, as a practical building material was reinforced using CuFe2O4 nanoparticles. This research follows two vital approaches: (1) enhancing the microwave absorbing and shielding characteristics of the brick as a building material using capable filler (2) diminishing the energy consumption in cold climates based on the optical characteristics of the brick/CuFe2O4 nanocomposite. It is noteworthy that the assigned peaks at both spectrum and pattern of brick/CuFe2O4 nanocomposite, related to the presence of chemical functional groups and crystal phases of brick and CuFe2O4, demonstrate that the nanocomposite have been constructed and the experimental treatments have not any effect on their chemical and crystal structures.

Results

Conclusion