WS2 nanotube – Reinforced cement: Dispersion matters

• Tungsten di-Sulfide NanoTubes (WS2NTs) enhance the cement flexural strength by 74%.
• We developed a method to disperse WS2NT individually in cement paste.
• Optimal enhancement occurs at extremely low WS2NT concentration (0.15 wt%).
• WS2NTs inhibit crack propagation by bridging, and fail via pullout mechanism.

Nanotubes are considered as promising nano-reinforcement in cement-based materials. The main challenge towards achieving a significant enhancement in cement properties is an effective dispersion of the agglomerated nanotubes. In this paper, we demonstrate a novel dispersion method of Tungsten di-Sulfide NanoTubes (WS2NTs) that results in substantial flexural and compressive strength enhancements at optimal nanotube concentration as low as 0.15 wt%. The reinforcement by WS2NTs remains significant after a variety of curing processes, suggesting a genuine nanoscale reinforcing effect. Finally, by employing a comprehensive fractography we found that the WS2NTs inhibit crack propagation by bridging with a pullout failure mechanism.

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