Low-Carbon and Recycled Mineral Composite Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure: A Comprehensive Review

作者：Rong Zhang, Yihe Zhang, Guoxing Sun, Hongqian Wei · 发表于：Sustainability · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3390/su17177908 · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Concrete and Cement Materials Research、Recycled Aggregate Concrete Performance、Recycling and utilization of industrial and municipal waste in materials production

Infrastructure construction is a major contributor to carbon emissions, primarily due to the extensive use of mineral materials such as cement and aggregates, which release significant amounts of carbon dioxide during production and use. While existing research has predominantly centered on the applications of concrete, the present study extends the investigation to encompass inorganic–organic composites, alloy materials, and wastewater treatment systems, with particular attention to bridging the gap between theoretical potential and practical implementation. This study identifies China, the USA, and India as leaders in this field, attributing their progress to abundant material resources and sustained policy support. Key findings reveal that while geopolymers can fully replace cement, substitution rates of less than 50% are optimal for high-performance concrete to maintain structural integrity and decarbonization benefits. Aggregate replacements using materials such as air-cooled blast furnace slag show 50–100% feasibility. This review further highlights the multifunctional potential of red mud, rice husk ash, fly ash, and blast furnace slag as cement replacements, aggregates, reinforcers, catalysts, adsorbents, and composite fillers. However, challenges such as unstable raw material supply, lack of standardization, and insufficient international collaboration persist; these issues have often been overlooked in prior research and viable solutions have not been proposed. To a...