Preparation and performance of conductive mortar based on lightweight conductive aggregates

In this study, lightweight conductive aggregates (CA) loaded with modified agar gel was prepared, and their influence on the resistivity of conductive cement-based materials was investigated. Results indicate that by impregnation treatment, agar gel was efficiently loaded in porous lightweight aggregates, thus CA with a resistivity of 0.5 Ω·m was obtained. The prepared CA significantly improved the conductivity of cement-based materials, and the modification effect was and related to the altered microstructure of cement matrix and conductive network established by CA, and can be characterized by GEM model. The prepared CA have promising potential for applications related to cement-based composites.