Sustainable Cementitious Composites

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue titled "Sustainable Cementitious Composites." Concrete remains the fundamental material in global infrastructure development; however, its production—particularly that of cement—accounts for approximately 8% of global CO₂ emissions. In the face of escalating climate challenges and growing demand for high-performance infrastructure, the advancement of sustainable, low-carbon concrete has become both an environmental imperative and a technological frontier.

Beyond simply reducing carbon emissions, next-generation concrete must also exhibit enhanced mechanical, durability, and structural properties across scales—ranging from nano- and microstructural designs to real-world structural applications. To meet this challenge, researchers are increasingly exploring a diverse range of advanced technologies, including, but not limited to, AI-assisted mix design, nanomaterial enhancement, smart functional additives, and intelligent structural optimization. This Special Issue underscores the importance of integrated, multi-technology approaches that advance both material innovation and structural performance, fostering the development of resilient, efficient, and climate-conscious built environments.

This Special Issue aims to showcase the latest research efforts that integrate low-carbon design with advanced performance enhancement technologies for concrete materials and structures. Emphasizing the full pathway “from materials to structures,” this Special Issue welcomes contributions that bridge fundamental materials science with structural-scale application and durability, especially through the use of emerging technologies such as AI, nanotechnology, and smart sensing systems.

The topic of this Special Issue is well-aligned with the scope of journals that focus on construction materials, structural mechanics, sustainable infrastructure systems, life-cycle performance, and digital engineering. This Special Issue ensures thematic coherence, while remaining broad enough to attract interdisciplinary contributions from researchers in fields of material science, structural engineering, environmental technology, and digital construction. With a goal of curating at least ten high-quality papers, this Special Issue may also be reprinted in a book form to serve as a timely reference on sustainable concrete technologies.

In this Special Issue, both original research articles and comprehensive review papers are welcome. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Low-carbon binder systems and supplementary cementitious materials.
• AI-assisted mix design, performance prediction, and optimization.
• Nanomaterial-enhanced concrete for multi-functional performance.
• Smart and sustainable admixtures for durability, workability, and sensing.
• Microstructure-driven material optimization and modeling.
• Performance-based structural design of low-carbon concrete.
• Structural-level enhancement: crack resistance, damping, and seismic resilience.
• Life-cycle assessment (LCA) and embodied carbon quantification.
• Digital construction and intelligent monitoring of concrete systems.
• Case studies on material-to-structure integration in sustainable projects.

We look forward to receiving your contributions and building a high-impact Special Issue that advances knowledge and practice in the field of sustainable concrete and structural innovation.

Dr. Jingjie Wei
Dr. Jianbo Zang
Dr. Jiang Zhu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Composites Science is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• low-carbon cement composites
• rheology
• multi-technology performance enhancement
• AI-assisted mix design and optimization
• nanomaterials in concrete
• functional admixtures and smart additives
• microstructure–performance relationships
• structural performance and durability