Recycling of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) has gradually emerged as a hot topic in the current research of building materials. Manufacturing the recycled asphalt mixture with a high RAP content still remains a major challenge due to the problem of inferior water damage resistance and fatigue cracking resistance. The aim of this study is to evaluate the servicing performance of recycled asphalt mixture with high percentage of RAP and assess its environmental impact on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emission. To further explore the intrinsic factor on the performance of a recycled asphalt mixture, the mixed asphalt binder with a different content of extracted RAP binder was firstly investigated. The results show that the larger the content of RAP binder, the lower the mechanical indexes and VOCs emission. There exists an internal relationship between the chemical composition and VOCs release behavior with the variation of the recycled asphalt binder content. Based on the results of mixed recycled asphalt binder, the road servicing performance of a rather high utilization of RAP (i.e., 50%, 60%, and 70%) was assessed. It was found that the reuse of RAP aggregates has little influence on the volume performance of recycled asphalt mixture, and servicing performances still meet the construction requirements in spite of a descending trend. Moreover, a significant reduction effect on VOCs emission was found in the mixing stage of recycled asphalt mixture, indicating that the VOCs emission can be decreased by 94.82% when the content of RAP aggregates increases to 70%. The recycling of RAP with a high content contributes to the sustainable development of road engineering and the construction of green pavements.

Realizing the utilization of reclaimed asphalt binder (RAB) and rice husk (RH) to reduce environmental pollution and expand the reutilization technique of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), co-pyrolysis of RAB with RH has great potential. In this study, the co-pyrolysis behaviors, gaseous products, and kinetics were evaluated using thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR). The results showed that incorporating RH into RAB improved its pyrolysis characteristics. The interactions between RAB and RH showed initial inhibition followed by subsequent promotion. The primary gaseous products formed during co-pyrolysis were aliphatic hydrocarbons, water, and carbon dioxide, along with smaller amounts of aldehydes and alcohols originating from RH pyrolysis. All average activation energy values for the blends, determined through iso-conversional methods, decreased with RH addition. The combined kinetic analysis revealed two distinct mechanisms: (1) at the lower conversion range, the pyrolysis of the blend followed a random nucleation and three-dimensional growth mechanism, while (2) at the higher conversion range, the control mechanism transitioned into three-dimensional diffusion.

The practical application of Li–O₂ batteries is severely hindered by parasitic reactions on the cathode side, which generally lead to large charging over-potentials and degraded cyclic performance. To address this issue, it is essential to integrate high-efficiency catalysts into conventional carbon-based electrodes. Herein, we report a novel La_0.85Ca_0.15Cr_0.85O₃@Ru (LCC@R) hybrid catalyst with an ultralow Ru loading (6.55 wt.%), synthesized via a facile sol-gel combined with in-situ reduction-exsolution method. Mono-dispersed and ultrafine Ru nanocrystals (2–5 nm) are uniformly anchored on the LCC substrate and serve as the catalytically active sites. The Li–O₂ battery with the LCC@R catalyst exhibits a low charge potential of 3.75 V at a current density of 50 mAg⁻¹ with limited capacity of 500 mAhg⁻¹. Impressive cyclic stabilities of up to 80 cycles (at 1000 mAhg⁻¹) and 15 cycles (at 2000 mAhg⁻¹) are achieved. Moreover, a large specific capacity of 8630 mAhg⁻¹ is delivered at 50 mAg⁻¹. Mechanistic studies reveal that the intermediate discharge product LiO₂ can be absorbed on LCC@R, thereby inhibiting the parasitic reactions induced by LiO₂ attack on carbon. The as-prepared LCC@R hybrid material is a promising cathode catalyst for constructing long-cycle-life and low-over-potential Li–O₂ batteries.