The influence of ethanol-diisopropanolamine on the hydration and mechanical properties of Portland cement

The effect of ethanol-diisopropanolamine (EDIPA) on the hydration and mechanical properties of Portland cement was focused on in this study. A combination of isothermal calorimetry, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)-thermogravimetric (TG) analysis was used to investigate the hydration kinetics of Portland cement with EDIPA. Strength tests were conducted to study the effect of EDIPA on Portland cement mortars. The results indicate that EDIPA hinders the formation of ettringite (AFt), decelerates the dissolution of gypsum, and accelerates the hydration rate of the aluminate and ferrite phase and the transformation of AFt to AFm. Additionally, EDIPA also accelerates the hydration of alite and the formation of portlandite (CH), and remarkably enhances the mechanical properties at 28 d. Such strength-enhancing mechanism is probably similar to TIPA.