Research progress of wheat straw and rice straw cement-based building materials in China

This paper comprehensively describes the development process, existing problems and future solutions of wheat straw and rice straw cement-based building materials in China. Straw cement-based building materials are environmentally friendly and have excellent thermal insulation, impact resistance, as well as social and economic benefits. In this paper, straw cement-based building materials are divided into mechanical and composite-type building materials; previously, composite-type materials have mainly been studied. As the percentage of straw increases, the compressive strength of these materials decreases; therefore, composite-type building materials with a straw content of no greater than 5% can be used for non-load-bearing structures. These materials have problems such as difficulty in stirring and slow hardening during preparation. Modification treatments can improve the compressive strength and flexural strength, but these processes often result in energy consumption and environmental pollution. For the two types of straw building materials, additional research is needed to determine the relationship between the mechanical properties and the microstructure and failure mechanism. A new concept of a mechanical bionic straw material is proposed that can overcome the above problems, suggesting the possible development of a new type of bionic light straw building material.