Waste plastic derived graphene sheets as nanofillers to enhance mechanical strength of concrete mixture: An inventive approach to deal with universal plastic waste

Abstract

This article reports a sustainable, and greener production of graphene sheets from waste plastics, further their utilization into the enhancement of compression and tensile strength of cementing concrete mixture. A modified binary pyrolysis approach was followed for the production of graphene sheets from waste plastic. Further, the potential of synthesized graphene sheets was tested for making the high-standard concrete. In this regard, four concrete mixtures having different ratios of waste plastic derived graphene sheets (WGS) (0.10%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%) along with pure concrete blocks were prepared. The results exhibited the comprehensive enhancement of 42.86% in compression strength and 30% in tensile strength for the sample with 0.5% of WGS which was cured for 28 days. Further, the market cost analysis of designed concrete mixtures was done from the economical index point of view. Also, evaluations of the mechanical strength data suggested, that the WGS based concrete blocks (WGB) namely WGB-01 and WGB-02 showed greater performance with affordable cost. • Waste plastic derived graphene sheets utilized into enhancement of compression and tensile strength of concrete mixture. • Different ratio of waste plastic derived graphene sheets (WGS) (0.10%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%) along with pure concrete blocks were prepared. • Results showed comprehensive enhancement of 42.86% in compression strength and 30% in tensile strength for the sample with 0.5% of WGS.