In the advanced research fields of solar cell and energy storing materials, graphene and graphene oxide (GO) are two of the most promising materials due to their high specific surface area, and excellent electrical and physical properties. However, they was seldom studied in the traditional materials because of their high cost. Nowadays, graphene and GO are much cheaper than before with the development of production technologies, which provides the possibility of using these extraordinary materials in the traditional construction industry. In this paper, GO was selected as a nano-material to modify two different asphalts. Then a thin film oven test and a pressure aging vessel test were applied to simulate the aging of GO-modified asphalts. After thermal aging, basic physical properties (softening point and penetration) were tested for the samples which were introduced at different mass ratios of GO (1% and 3%) to asphalt. In addition, rheological properties were tested to investigate how GO could influence the asphalts by dynamic shearing rheometer tests. Finally, some interesting findings and potential utilization (warm mixing and flame retardants) of GO in asphalt pavement construction were explained.

Background: Laboratory research suggested that basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag-based asphalt mixture was a functional material. However, the BOF slag aggregate's quality was difficult to control when it was heavily used in entity engineering. Aims: The primary objective of this research was to evaluate the functional performances of asphalt mixture containing BOF slag coarse aggregate (BSCA), which was from an industrialized production line. Methods: Limestone mixture was a control group. The Marshall method was first adopted to design asphalt mixtures. The performances of limestone asphalt mixture and BOF slag asphalt mixture including fatigue failure resistance and moisture stability were then evaluated and compared. Results: Results showed that the asphalt mixture containing BSCA possessed better durability, which meant the quality of BSCA from industrialized production lines was well controlled and this BSCA can be heavily used in entity engineering.