NANOTECHNOLOGY IN CONSTRUCTION: JUST FASHION OR REAL POTENTIALITIES?

Developments of technology and advances in materials science and engineering are leading to a new generation of products that may represent a competitive route to achieve a real sustainable growth in construction. Currently many nano-based products are available on the global market: smart-materials, nano- composite materials, nano-devices, etc.. Further nanotechnologies enable new developments: materials and products are fast emerging or exist in bulky and expensive forms in other industrial sectors. Anyway, a great deal of research, directly focused in construction’s applications, should be done. This paper is aimed to discuss such an increasing trend and analyses the global market. A general survey on official financial data is performed from many governmental sources in order to enumerate the effective R&D efforts undertaken worldwide. All of those show how nanotechnologies are not just a matter of fashion. Indeed, such a novel materials, technologies and devices are truly applicable in construction and represent also a real natural solution to the number of problems that have afflicted this industrial sector for decades. In this review, many examples of successful applications are reported along with the most popular lines of research. Finally, the acquisition of the knowledge on nanotechnology’s applications in construction allows to formulate a judgment on the real applicability and convenience on such a novel technologies’ usage in comparison to the traditional systems and materials, well established and consolidated in the practice.