The composition of Portland cement , the most widely used in the world, has been modified at the microscopic structure level by a team of researchers "not to make it transparent or translucent, but so that it could absorb UV rays" and, in this way, absorb ultraviolet radiation during the day and then glow at night.
According to the Mexican researcher José Carlos Rubio Ávalos , from the Michoacan University of San Nicolás de Hidalgo, "If we find it scattered throughout the world, if we see it in an infinity of buildings, roads, houses and bridges, then the cement is surely exposed to solar radiation ".
This new material is four times more expensive than normal cement, so it should be used only as a cover layer for normal cement, but, being inorganic, it has higher performance and durability , unlike plastics that are commonly used for create phosphorescent materials.
Plastics are made up of polymeric chains, in the shape of spaghetti, that are cut like knives by UV rays. So if you leave a plastic container in the sun, it first stiffens and then crystallizes and breaks.
We are still waiting for possible applications, but it would be interesting, at least, to be able to use cement in some areas of the road to mark it: for example, illuminating the lines that separate both directions or the hard shoulders.