Advances in Circular and Carbon-Negative Construction Materials: From Waste Valorization to Intelligent Manufacturing

In recent years, the construction industry has been undergoing a profound transition toward carbon neutrality, resource efficiency, and environmental sustainability. The development of low-carbon construction materials has emerged as a critical pathway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimize virgin resource consumption, and support circular economy practices in civil and environmental engineering. Particularly, the valorization of industrial by-products, municipal solid wastes, sludge-derived materials, steel slags, recycled mineral resources, and carbon-rich wastes has opened new opportunities for producing next-generation sustainable binders, supplementary cementitious materials, expansive agents, functional fillers, and engineered geomaterials. Meanwhile, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies, especially mineral carbonation and CO2 curing, have shown significant promise for transforming waste streams into carbon-negative construction materials. In parallel, recent advances in smart materials, digital fabrication, robotics, and artificial intelligence have accelerated innovation in construction material design, performance prediction, quality control, and lifecycle optimization. The integration of intelligent technologies with sustainable material development is creating new paradigms for environmentally responsible infrastructure systems.Despite substantial progress, major scientific and engineering challenges remain. The long-term durability, material durability and carbon fixation efficiency, multi-scale physicochemical evolution, environmental safety, carbon sequestration efficiency, and multifunctional performance of waste-derived low-carbon materials under complex service conditions are still insufficiently understood. Furthermore, synergistic strategies combining waste recycling, carbon utilization, environmental remediation, and intelligent manufacturing require deeper exploration.This Research Topic aims to collect Original Research, Reviews, and Perspectives addressing the latest advances in sustainable construction materials with particular emphasis on:• low-carbon binder systems• circular utilization of industrial and municipal wastes• CO2 mineralization and carbon-negative materials• environmentally functional construction materials• intelligent and smart sustainable material technologiesThis Research Topic welcomes interdisciplinary contributions involving theoretical analysis, material design, laboratory experiments, numerical simulation, lifecycle assessment, pilot-scale validation, and field applications.Contributions of interest include but are not limited to the following:Low-carbon construction materials• Novel low-carbon cementitious materials• Alkali-activated materials and geopolymers• Alternative binders with reduced clinker content• Carbon-negative construction materials• Durability and lifecycle performance of low-carbon materials• Material durability and carbon fixation efficiencyWaste valorization and circular construction• Recycling of industrial by-products in construction materials• Steel slag utilization• Freshwater sludge / municipal sludge valorization• Carbide slag reuse• Incineration ash utilization• Waste-derived expansive agents and admixtures• Circular economy pathways for construction materialsCarbon capture and utilization• Mineral carbonation of construction materials• CO2 curing technologies• Carbon sequestration in cementitious systems• Carbonation-induced performance enhancement• Coupled carbon capture and waste stabilization technologiesEnvironmental materials• Contaminated soil remediation materials• Heavy metal immobilization technologies• Functional porous environmental materials• Materials for groundwater protection and pollutant control• Remediation-driven material designAdvanced functional materials• Smart/self-sensing construction materials• Responsive materials for infrastructure• Bio-based construction materials• Multifunctional sustainable composites• High-performance green fillers and additivesIntelligent technologies• AI-assisted material design• Robotics in sustainable construction materials manufacturing• Digital twins for material lifecycle monitoring• Automated quality control systems• Data-driven performance prediction Topic editors: XU BO, Jiawei Tan, WENTAO LI Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82283/advances-in-circular-and-carbon-negative-construction-materials-from-waste-valorization-to-intelligent-manufacturing