Effects of synthetic C-S-H/PCE nanocomposites on early cement hydration

This work investigates the influence of synthetic C-S-H/polycarboxylate(PCE) nanocomposites (CPNs) on the hydration and properties of hydrated cement pastes. HPEG-PCE copolymers exhibiting side chain length of 45 ethylene oxide (EO) units was utilized to synthesize CPNs by precipitating C-S-H from Na2SiO3 and Ca(NO3)2 in the PCE solution. A Box-Behnken Design (BBD) for the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was employed to statistically optimize the sizes of the resultant. The prepared CPNs were characterized by particle size distribution (PSD), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectra (FT-IR) and thermo gravimetric/derivative thermo gravimetric (TG/DTG) analyses. The influence of CPNs on the hydration properties of cement were assessed and discussed in terms of hydration kinetics, mechanical properties, phase composition and pore structure analysis. The experimental results showed that the optimum synthetic parameters, an experimental temperature of 30.1 °C, reactant flow velocity of 0.63 ml/min and initial volume of PCE solution of 28.5 ml, produced CPNs with a minimum size of 329.12 nm. It was demonstrated that PCE polymers were either grafted on the surface or partially intercalated in the interlayer regions of C-S-H, and their introduction also increased the distance between C-S-H interlayers. Cement hydration was significantly promoted as a result of an increased heat release, even at low CPNs content. The early compressive strength of the mortar significantly improved with increasing CPNs content due to the accelerated cement hydration of the CPNs: the 0.6 wt.% CPNs content improved the compressive strength by 18.97%. Moreover, the inclusion of CPNs is advantageous for pore modification: the total porosity decreased by 25.77% after 3 days. Finally, phase composition analysis confirmed that no new crystalline phase was produced upon CPNs addition.