Based on five Special Issues in Coatings, this e-book contains a series of 15 articles demonstrating actual perspectives and new trends in advanced coatings in buildings. Innovative materials and multiperformance solutions provide a basis, contributing also to the better protection of buildings’ surfaces during the service life, and the users’ wellbeing.

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Concrete, one of the most often-used building materials today, is the cornerstone of modern buildings all over the world, being used for foundations, pavements, building walls, architectural structures, highways, bridges, overpasses, and so on. Because of its adaptability, concrete may be found in practically every construction, in some form or another. Yet, the diverse nature of its components, their combinations, and their doses result in a very wide range of concrete kinds with varying properties. As a result, concrete is a material that is always evolving and is popular even now, especially when it comes to circular economy.Other ways of concrete manufacturing are now being researched to lessen or remove the limits of this material, which are connected to its brittleness and poor environmental effects. As a result, the development of engineering cementitious composites has resulted in a significant reduction in flexibility issues, while the introduction of new additives and the optimization of the manufacturing process has resulted in a significant reduction in the negative effects of virgin raw material exploitation. In-depth research is still required to optimize and increase the sustainability of these advanced engineering cementitious composites or alternative concretes.In this Special Issue (SI), state-of-the-art research and review articles on the emerging material systems for AM are collected, with a focus on the process–structure–properties relationships. In total, eleven research papers and six reviews have been collected.

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The Special Issue, “Architectural Structure,” aims to gather general advances in human-made constructions which simultaneously are driven by aesthetic and structural engineering considerations. This Special Issue brings together twelve contributions covering the following topics: analysis of architectural typologies; the study of the mechanical performance of structural materials, structural systems and components; and the proposal of techniques to evaluate the mechanical performance in existing structures and new construction techniques.

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This reprint focuses on understanding the basic principles of damage growth and fracture processes in advanced metallic and composite structures, including structural joints. Currently, it is widely recognized that important macroscopic properties, like macroscopic stiffness and strength, are governed by processes that occur at one to several scales below the level of observation. A thorough understanding of how these processes influence the reduction of stiffness and strength forms the key to the analysis and design of existing and improved innovative structural elements. The study of how these various length scales, nano-, micro-, and meso-, can be bridged or taken into account simultaneously in multiscale models is particularly attractive for composite materials and structural elements, since they have a well-defined structure at the above-specified levels.

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This reprint focuses on studies dealing with bio-based materials and its contribution to a circular economy. Research dealing with recycling, waste conversion to bio-based products, the development of bio-based composites, and surface treatments on cellulose fibres have been included in this reprint.

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The use of concrete has played a leading role in the construction sector from the last quarter of the 19th century to today. Therefore, the main trends in the research in the concrete field are related to maintenance, safety assessment, and repairing of the existing buildings and/or infrastructures and the design of new and environmentally innovative concrete composites. This Special Issue aims to contribute to this discussion by means of experimental, numerical, and theoretical approaches. In detail, this reprint is focused on four challenges connected to concrete as a construction material. The first topic is related to the assessment of mechanical behavior of structural concrete in existing structures. The second topic deals with the advances in cement and concrete chemistry with special attention provided to sustainable development. Moreover, the Special Issue provides experimental and numerical tests for the evaluation of the structural behavior due to seismic events in order to achieve resilient design. Furthermore, the reprint includes application of artificial intelligence algorithms for assessing the optimal design concrete dosage parameters and estimating mechanical properties.

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In this reprint, state-of-the-art research and review articles on emerging material systems for additive manufacturing (AM) are collected, with a focus on the process–structure–properties relationships. Additive manufacturing (AM) has grown and evolved rapidly in recent years. There are many exciting research and translational works in many areas of application, such as biomedical, aerospace and electronics. These advancements are typically coupled with materials development, which has resulted in more functionalities added to 3D-printed parts, such as multi-material fabrications and integration with machine learning or digital twins. Such enhancements in functionalities have enabled the evolution of AM from a rapid prototyping tool to an actual manufacturing solution. In this reprint, two reviews and thirteen original research articles are included to highlight the latest development in the field of materials science for AM.

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Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) material, known for its high strength, light weight, and excellent durability under harsh conditions or in coastal environments, has been widely used as a popular material in the strengthening, repairing, and retrofitting of existing structures. Additionally, the combination of FRP and traditional construction materials has been increasingly employed in the construction of buildings and bridges. Recently, new fibers (such as flax) and new matrixes (such as geo-polymer matrixes) have shown great potential in lieu of traditional FRP composites in many engineering scenarios. For the safe and effective application of FRP composites in civil engineering, plausible approaches to aid in estimating the performances of such structures need to be developed. The three Guest Editors organized this Special Issue (SI) that aimed to present recent advances and emerging cross-disciplinary approaches in FRP composites by collecting predominantly integrated studies pertaining to the performance of FRP composite structures. Studies from experimental testing, analytical approaches, numerical simulation, and emerging algorithms on the performance of strengthening existing structures and new-built structures were published. Nine published articles covered the following directions: FRP-strengthened concrete structures, thin-walled FRP composites for building and bridge applications, and the structural behaviors of FRP under actions of fire or environmental factors.

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Organogels, hydrogels, and ionic gels have been investigated both in a theoretical and experimental manner. The research performed was focused on their synthesis and applications in high-performance chemistry and its important branches. All mentioned gels were characterized from structural and supramolecular points of view by FTIR, NMR, X-ray diffraction, and POM. The keywords proposed in this reprint were as follows: organogels, hydrogels, ionic gels, chitosan, and fractal analysis. These terms were extremely pertinent to this research piece, hereby presented. As a result, all reference themes, as well as those associated with them, were touched upon in this reprint. We mention that the articles in this selection focused on one or more of the topics listed above.

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Coal mining continues to make advances, especially in the areas of safety and environmental protection as a result of mining. This book contains nine peer-reviewed articles on green coal mining that address most of the important issues associated with improving coal mining. These issues include the protection of water above coal mines, both surface and ground water, and the subsidence that occurs during and after mining with methods to limit it and methods of rehabilitation. Additional issues include mine entry and production area support and methods to control gas emissions.

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The recent developments in the environmental applications of heterogenous catalysis and photocatalysis are described in this book, focusing on air and water purification using innovative and performing catalysts and applying new green and sustainable processes.

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This Special Issue addresses a topic that is of great relevance as, nowadays, in developed countries, individuals spend most of their time indoors and, depending on each person, the presence at home ranges between 60% and 90% of the day, with 30% of that time spent sleeping. Considering these data, indoor residential environments have a direct influence on human health, especially considering that, in developing countries, significant levels of indoor pollution make housing unsafe, having an impact on the health of inhabitants. Therefore, housing is a key health factor for people all over the world, and various parameters, such as air quality, ventilation, hygrothermal comfort, lighting, physical environment, and building efficiency, can contribute to healthy architecture, as well as to the conditions that can result from the poor application of these parameters. The articles in this Special Issue thus address issues concerning indoor environmental quality (IEQ), which is described, more simply, as the conditions inside a building. This includes air quality, but also access to daylight and views, pleasant acoustic conditions, and occupant control over lighting and thermal comfort. IEQ also includes the functional aspects of the space, such as whether the layout provides easy access to tools and people when needed and whether there is sufficient space for the occupants. Building managers and operators can increase building occupant satisfaction by considering all aspects of IEQ rather than focusing on temperature or air quality alone.

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The book outlines recent advances in nuclear wasteform materials including glasses, ceramics and cements and spent nuclear fuel. It focuses on durability aspects and contains data on performance of nuclear wasteforms as well as expected behavior in a disposal environment.

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Renewable energy and clean storage technologies are at the forefront of the world’s fight against climate change, including the UN-led move towards a carbon-neutral society. Because these complex technologies require more ‘critical’ metals and elements than fossil fuel-based technologies, the demands for raw materials in their manufacturing are skyrocketing and are projected to continue to increase into the foreseeable future.With ore grades on a steep decline, huge amounts of low-grade ores will have to be mined and processed to satisfy the world’s current and future demands for ‘critical’ metals and elements. Expansion of mining and mineral processing operations would mean more mining-related wastes—tailings, waste rocks and acid mine drainage (AMD)—notorious for their devastating and long-term destructive impacts on the environment. This Special Issue explored repurposing/reprocessing of tailings and AMD treatment cost reduction as promising alternatives to manage mine wastes more sustainably. It also includes articles on the critical roles of redox conditions and galvanic interactions on mine waste stability, hydrogeochemical controls on waste rock weathering, and climate change impacts on AMD formation in closed mines.

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At present, more and more procedures and technologies used to discover and characterize new materials are available, including advanced characterization techniques.This Special Issue covers a wide range of topics about obtaining and characterizing new materials, from the nano to macro scales, including for new alloys, ceramics, composites, biomaterials, and polymers and the procedures and technologies used to enhance their structure, properties, and functions. To select new materials for future use, we must first understand their structure and their characteristics using modern techniques such as microscopy (SEM, TEM, AFM, STM, etc.), spectroscopy (EDX, XRD, XRF, FTIR, XPS, etc.), and mechanical tests (tensile, hardness, elastic modulus, toughness, etc.) and their behaviors (in vitro and in vivo; corrosion; and thermal—DSC, STA, DMA, magnetic properties, and biocompatibility), among many others.

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A collection of articles published under the guidance of Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. Andrei Victor SANDU in the Special Issue "Obtaining and Characterization of New Materials, Volume II". The published articles under this Special Issue represent an excellent collection of research and review articles with cutting-edge results that promote sustainable development in the field of material engineering.

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The recovery of solid waste is a challenge and an opportunity for companies, thanks to the ongoing awareness of sustainability and technological advances. The end-of-waste criteria constitute a European strategic goal that promotes recycling in order to ensure a high level of environmental protection by means of reducing the quantity of waste destined for disposal. This Special Issue promotes the knowledge regarding technological methods for solid waste recovery. Articles investigate innovative processing methods with the goal of valorizing solid waste from different civil and industrial activities. Topics includes studies on construction and building, mining, plastics, and WEEE, referring to the treatment techniques used and, where appropriate, the critical raw materials that can be valorized. The recovery processes of critical raw materials can be very energy-intensive, affecting environmental and soil factors. Case studies on sustainable, low-carbon and resource-efficient techniques for the purpose of a more competitive economy were also very welcomed. The environmental impact and safety measures, especially for dangerous waste, should be taken into account in the description of their processing and management.

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Soil erosion by wind is significant to Earth systems and human health. There is a strong interest in understanding the factors and processes of soil erosion by wind as well as in developing and applying methods to control dust emission from soils and to stabilize active sands. The Special Issue contains information on applications of natural and synthetic materials to reduce soil erosion, development of materials and methods, experimental methods and modeling, impacts on the soil quality and the environments, and quantification of the efficiency in dust control and sand stabilization applications.

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Implementing environmentally friendly and cost-effective solutions is a pressing need to fulfill the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set to be achieved by 2030. Thus, the requirement to execute the design, construction and maintenance of civil engineering structures and infrastructures as sustainably as possible are big challenges currently faced by civil and geotechnical engineers. This book, compiling the papers published during the 2020–2021 biennium in the Topical Collection, “Sustainability in Geotechnics: The Use of Environmentally Friendly Materials”, is intended help tackle those challenges. Several topics are covered by the 23 papers published herein, including: sustainable ground improvement techniques; replacement of raw materials such as soils and aggregates by recycled materials; soil reinforcement with alternative materials; sustainable solutions using geosynthetics; low-carbon solutions for stabilization of contaminated soils; and bioengineering techniques to prevent soil erosion. The Guest Editor expects that this book can be very useful towards the achievement of more environmentally friendly solutions, in particular in the field of geotechnical engineering.

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This Book is a Printed Edition of the Special Issue which covers sustainability as an emerging requirement in the fields of construction management, project management and engineering. We invited authors to submit their theoretical or experimental research articles that address the challenges and opportunities for sustainable construction in all its facets, including technical topics and specific operational or procedural solutions, as well as strategic approaches aimed at the project, company or industry level. Central to developments are smart technologies and sophisticated decision-making mechanisms that augment sustainable outcomes. The Special Issue was received with great interest by the research community and attracted a high number of submissions. The selection process sought to balance the inclusion of a broad representative spread of topics against research quality, with editors and reviewers settling on thirty-three articles for publication. The Editors invite all participating researchers and those interested in sustainable construction engineering and management to read the summary of the Special Issue and of course to access the full-text articles provided in the Book for deeper analyses.

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This book entitled Zeolites is a collection of papers recently published in the journal Crystals, focusing on zeolites as a group of hydrated aluminosilicates with unique physical and chemical properties that can have numerous and important applications. The collection opens with works related to the geological documentation of the newest deposits of natural zeolites. The second part of the book describes a variety of synthesis methods and characterizes the resulting products. Finally, some recent advances in their applications in different fields are presented at the end of the book.

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