Al₂Ca₁₂O₄₈Si₁₂V₆

Architectural potential

An aluminium-vanadium-modified calcium silicate fired at 1100 °C — a serious dense calcium-silicate binder at 200 MPa of compression and a nineteen-per-cent cut in embodied CO₂ against Portland cement. The full supply-chain score (1.0) and the 5 kg workshop ceiling make this one of the more specifiable low-CO₂ cement substitutes in this batch: non-reinforced slab work for landscape walls and garden-room floors, prefabricated cladding panels for low-carbon housing, site-cast foundation plinths for pavilion architecture, and thin-panel screeds in retrofit carpentry where conventional concrete would over-burden a timber floor system. Against Portland cement the pouring logic and formwork detail stay familiar, so the contractor-culture translates directly — the building still looks like a concrete building, but with the kiln energy of the binder cut nearly one-fifth. The vanadium fraction does not carry an active chemistry here; it sits as a lattice stabiliser, which keeps the specification free of the niche-function tax. The caveat is cost: €31.18 per 1 kg batch is the highest in the low-CO₂ binder group, and the nineteen-per-cent CO₂ cut has to justify itself against lower-cost supplementary cementitious materials that already sit in the market at higher replacement rates.

Material character

A clean white-grey body with a slight blue-cast undertone from the vanadate phase — cooler than the iron-stained calcium-silicate siblings, flatter in reflected light than the strontium-modified ones. At 3.59 g/cm³ and 85×85×39 mm the slab is firm two-handed, heavier in hand than the standard calcium-silicate blocks thanks to the vanadium loading. Surface vitrified skin, satin-matte, edging toward a partial glaze where the aluminium fraction flushed the silicate network. Edges cold-cut, the kerf bright white with a fine dust at the saw line. Against a pure calcium-silicate sibling the ring under tap is higher and cleaner, and the body reads visibly denser and cooler-toned under side-lighting.