Highly piezoresistive, self-sensing, one-part potassium-activated inorganic polymers for structural health monitoring

Structural health monitoring will revolutionize infrastructure repair by enabling targeted preventative maintenance. To achieve this goal, new self-sensing materials are needed with high strength, piezor-esistivity, scalability, and affordability. These four properties can be achieved with potassium-activated inorganic polymers. In this study, new relationships have been discovered between the composition of these materials and their self-sensing capabilities. Alkali-activated materials form natural composites with high self-sensing capabilities without the need for conductive fiber additives. The intrinsic pie-zoresistivity of potassium-activated inorganic polymers surpasses the best cement-carbon nanotube composites without the added cost and scalability limitations. This positions the materials as the best candidate for future self-sensing construction materials for structural health monitoring applications.(c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Structural health monitoring can be revolutionized by using potassium-activated inorganic polymers as self-sensing materials, achieving high strength, piezoresistivity, scalability, and affordability without the need for conductive fiber additives. These materials are considered the best candidate for future structural health monitoring applications.