Hi,
interesting yes, potentially groundbreaking.
i am no chemist (dredging ancient memory from 35 years ago jr college chemistry jag!)
and am more a ' teaspoon tester' than scientific analyzer however
i love the way papercrete feels, compared to cement which i do not like the feel of-
but there are obviously some limitations which need to be overcome.
given climate change and the rainfall patterns seemingly in shift, i think
it better to design for all possible conditions, not rely on choosing a dry zone to build with papercrete.
Also, i live in Tasmania where we get a drought and a flood and then a fire perhaps
all on the same day-that's the extreme example here-
most days, we just get 4 seasons!
the mystery to me is WHY papercrete ' works' as i understand that portland cement does not bind to fibre-
(it has been explained to me , by Charmaine i think, that the portland encases the fibre and that is how it works...)
but the porous nature (or do i mean pervious? not sure...) of portland cement admits water
which rots the fibre, resulting in a failure of the material in wet conditions.
on the other hand,
Magnesium Phosphate cement Binds with fibre and additionally will Not admit water.
It is more expensive than portland but the offset is you can use more fibre in the mix which sounds like
Papercrete to me...
as the MgPO4 concrete it a chemically bonded ceramic, it is water and fire proof-
(living in dry schlerophyll forest, fire proof is good!)
also, it is acceptable to soil life
(i once poured out a bucket of water from washing the portland from my tools
and a number of worms came writhing to the surface in agony-horrible)
not to mention the CO2 footprint of Portland Cement-virtually a kilo of CO2 per kilo of PC...
MgPO4 concrete absorbs CO2 as it cures altho with papercrete, maybe not as there
is something about 'carbonation' to get this to happen.
A sculptor called Michael Collins uses MgPO4 concrete- he is on the net-
painting the slurry on cloth to develop emergency shelter- he says dip a piece of paper
in the slurry and it becomes as if encased in ceramic.
it is worth a trip to the US to try a bag of Grancrete or Ceramicrete-
we can't buy it here!
there are numerous patents and lots of scientific papers on ceramicrete
but it is slow work for me to get the gist of it! I have the general idea, just working out
how to get the right proportions by volume and how to apply realistically to building.
Starting small with sculpture and plant pots.
As soon as i can get the fine ground dead burned MgO ( i have finally found a supplier in Oz-
it wasn't easy) i will begin testing and put up some posts about the results-
but i would love to know if anyone out there has already tried
to make 'ceramipapercete ' and what sort of result they had?
(maybe i just haven't tried the right 'search word' !)
cheers, eo
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