Research
The project aims to advance sustainable alternatives to Portland cement by developing the knowledge of alkali-activated materials (AAMs). Cement production alone accounts for nearly 8% of global CO₂ emissions, primarily due to high-temperature limestone processing. By contrast, AAMs can be synthesized from industrial by-products, natural aluminosilicates and even municipal household waste ash under milder conditions, offering significant potential for reducing CO₂ emissions and optimizing resources in the construction sector. AAMs also exhibit excellent fire resistance, making them particularly promising for applications such as underground car parks and high-rise buildings. However, their largely amorphous structure makes characterization and property prediction highly challenging.
This project addresses this gap through a workflow combining synthesis, spectroscopy, diffraction, structural modelling, and machine learning potentials. AAMs will be synthesized and systematically characterized, with vibrational spectroscopy and modelling as central tools. Experimental and theoretical approaches are integrated with the goal to provide understanding into the structural origins of spectroscopic signatures.
Biography
Jessica completed her PhD in 2022 at Université Paris-Saclay, France, supervised by Carine Clavaguéra and Florent Calvo, where she developed a method to determine vibrational circular dichroism spectra from molecular dynamics simulations using a polarisable force field. She subsequently conducted her first postdoctoral research position at Sorbonne University, France, with Riccardo Spezia and Rodolphe Vuilleumier, from 2022 to 2024, investigating the modification of liquid water properties under vibrational strong coupling through molecular dynamics. Jessica afterwards joined the ALGC research group at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2024 as postdoctoral fellow with Frederik Tielens focusing on determining Raman spectra of silicates using a polarisable force field.