Hydrogen-rich water revealed benefits in controlling the physical and mechanical performances of cement mortar

•Hydrogen rich water revealed benefits as a cement admixture.•H2 rich water controls the physical, mechanical and setting behavior of cement.•H2 water leads to set the cement finally within 15 min upon addition of water.•Efficacy of H2 rich water in enhancing the early age mechanical strength of mortar.•Design of a model to explain the overall performances of H2 rich water.

The present investigation deals with the effectiveness of hydrogen-rich water in controlling the physical and mechanical performances of cement mortar. In this study, the different concentrations of hydrogen-rich water (0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 ppm) were used to fabricate the mortar samples. The impact of the hydrogen-rich water was evaluated analyzing the setting time, flow table value, bulk density, water absorption, apparent porosity, compressive strength and flexural strength of the cement mortar samples. Analyzing the results, the final setting time of the control, as well as 0.5 ppm hydrogen-rich water based cement, is measured to be 257 ± 3 min and 14 ± 3 min, respectively. Additionally, the compressive as well as flexural strength of 7 days cured 0.5 ppm hydrogen-rich water based cement mortar is found to be 59% and 30% higher, respectively, as compared to that of the control mortar. This could be primarily governed by the formation of the greater extent of hydrated cement product in the presence of hydrogen-rich water. Therefore, it is demonstrated that the hydrogen-rich water behaves like a cement set accelerator admixture. Finally, a model has been proposed to explain the overall performances of hydrogen water based cement mortar.

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