Mechanical, non-destructive, and thermal characterization of biochar-based mortar composite

Sustainable materials present a significant revolution in the construction industry and exhibit tremendous potential to develop a green building material that can be adopted to lower the construction sector’s carbon footprint. This study details the development, mechanical and thermal properties of mortar produced using biochar derived from date palm leaves (BioCl) and date palm seeds (BioCs) as a cement additive. A detailed experimental protocol including flowability, compressive strength, the volume of permeable voids test, ultrasonic pulse velocity test, nondestructive crack identification, and thermal was conducted to understand the effect of adding biochar on the performance characteristics of mortar. The durability and mechanical test indicated that BioCl performed better than BioCs while both additive materials performed better than the control samples. Adding BioCl and BioCs to 0.75% and 1.00% improved the compressive strength to 7 and 5%, respectively, compared to the control samples. The ultrasonic pulse velocity direct and indirect method results were significantly reduced to a maximum of 22.54% and 20.46 with the addition of BioCl and BioCs in mortar. This further confirms the dense packing of biochar particles into the interfacial transition zone of the matrix. Biochar-masonry concrete blocks showed almost 41% lower thermal conductivity than control concrete, indicating biochar-based blocks’ high thermal performance.