On the nature of structural disorder in calcium silicate hydrates with a calcium/silicon ratio similar to tobermorite

Four calcium silicate hydrates (CSH) with structural calcium/silicon (Ca/Si) ratios ranging from 0.82 ± 0.02 to 0.87 ± 0.02 were synthesized at room temperature, 50, 80, and 110 °C. Their structure was elucidated by collating information from electron probe micro-analysis, transmission electron microscopy, extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). A modeling approach specific to defective minerals was used because sample turbostratism prevented analysis using usual XRD refinement techniques (e.g. Rietveld analysis). It is shown that CSH with Ca/Si ratio of ~ 0.8 are structurally similar to nano-crystalline turbostratic tobermorite, a naturally occurring mineral. Their structure thus consists of sheets of calcium atoms in 7-fold coordination, covered by ribbons of silicon tetrahedra with a dreierketten (wollastonite-like) organization. In these silicate ribbons, 0.42 Si per bridging tetrahedron are missing. Random stacking faults occur systematically between successive layers (turbostratic stacking). Layer-to-layer distance is equal to 11.34 Å. Crystallites have a mean size of 10 nm in the a–b plane, and a mean number of 2.6–2.9 layers stacked coherently along the c* axis.