Novel cementitious materials with mechanoluminescence for the application of visible stress monitoring and recording

The development of real-time and accurate visual stress detection is crucial for the field of building engineering. Herein, a new strategy is explored for the development of novel cementitious materials by hierarchical aggregation smart luminescent material and resin-based material. The cementitious material with such layered structure is inherently capable of visualization of stress monitoring and recording by converting the stress to visible light. The specimen fabricated by the novel cementitious material could repetitively emit green visible light under excitation of a mechanical pulse for 10 cycles, suggesting that the cementitious material shows highly reproducible performance. Moreover, the numerical simulations and analysis for the models of stress indicate that the luminescent time is synchronous with the stress and the emission intensity is proportional to the value of stress. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that the cementitious material realizes visible stress monitoring and recording, which supplies new insights for exploring modern multi-functional building materials.