This cement is totally cool

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By ScienceAdviser. 

Excerpt: ...on a hot summer day... Concrete sidewalks and buildings practically exude heat, requiring extra powerful air conditioners on the inside while contributing to an “urban heat dome” on the outside. The warming climate is slated to make these effects even worse. Researchers may have found a solution: a special cement, a key ingredient of concrete, that stays cool. ...test their cooling cement, the researchers placed a slab on a roof for a day, finding that it stayed chill even at the toastiest temperatures. Another panel was left outside for a year and experienced minimal degradation. ...Since the cement dries in as little as 10 minutes, the authors propose that it could be applied to existing building surfaces, including concrete, metals, and ceramic tiles. The team conducted in-depth modeling of how the cooling cement could be used in seven cities around the world to help achieve net-zero or negative carbon emissions for buildings by reducing the high energy demand of air conditioners. “This breakthrough holds the potential to turn the heavy cement industry into a negative-carbon emission system, where supercool cement could play a key role in driving an energy-efficient, carbon-free future for the construction industry,” write the authors, noting that cement is the most used synthetic substance in the world.... 

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