Reuse of construction waste to produce thermoluminescent sensor for use in highway traffic control

Abstract

Brazil's construction industry contributes significantly to growth of the nation's gross domestic product, but it is also among the world's largest generators of construction waste (CW), which, if not properly disposed of, can have a significant impact on the environment. A proposal for the recycling and reduction of construction waste is presented in this paper. This work aimed to produce a traffic orientation sensor by reusing CW and demonstrate the economic and environmental viability of the process. A 22 factorial planning was done varied ceramic and masonry CW content (0–5.5%) and they were mixed with 5 M ZnO pure to obtain CW-ZnO sensor by sol-gel method. The CW-ZnO samples were irradiated in a sealed chamber equipped with a UV lamp and the TL reader was used to measure luminescence and set their glow curves. Results showed that the best condition for obtaining the CW-ZnO sensor was found using 1% ceramic CW and 1% masonry CW, which yielded 80% of the luminescence of pure ZnO. However, the CW blend that presented the lowest luminescence yield suggests that the material can be used as an alternative to obtaining a photovoltaic cell. The proposed sensor is three times cheaper than the luminescence standard with revenues by US$ 970 thousand and profits by US$ 242 thousand per month. Thus, this work demonstrates the possibility of reusing CW to produce a traffic sensor helps mitigate the environmental impact of construction waste disposal in an economically viable way.