Regisration

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Abstract

As per today, ~55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. It is projected that it would reach ~2.5 billion by 2050, with ~90% of this increase in Asia & Africa. With such an upsurge of urban population and climate change increase of the average seasonal atmospheric temperature, several SDGs challenges will have to be overwhelmed. In this regard, STI and R&D are a potential bridge in addressing such challenges within the energy, water & health nexus. In the energy sector, Vanadium based thermochromic nano-coatings are ideal for smart windows applications regulating solar heat radiations with zero energy-input (Green air-conditioning). Likewise, nano-fluids as a new generation of superior coolants would play a major role in waste heat recovery as well as drug delivery. In addition, it was recently validated that CO2 can be used to bioengineer several multifunctional carbonates. These latter exhibited effective fertilizing response, and, a high reflective properties equivalent of radiative cooling paint as well as a significant porosity/hardness as a potential Supplementary Compound Material (SCM) for cement industry. This contribution is intended to highlight on the above-mentioned properties in line with UN-SDGs vision & mission.

Speaker

Prof Malik Maaza, Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and UNESCO-UNISA Africa Chair in Nanosciences-Nanotechnology.