Effects of Nanoalumina and Graphene Oxide on Early-Age Hydration and Mechanical Properties of Cement Paste
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 9
Abstract
The effects of nanoalumina (NA) and graphene oxide (GO) on the early-age hydration and mechanical properties of portland cement pastes were investigated in this study. The hydration heat release rate and cumulative heat of cement pastes incorporating different dosages of NA and GO were evaluated using an isothermal calorimeter measurement method. Early-age electrical resistivity development was investigated by a noncontact electrical resistivity technique. The results show that both NA and GO could efficiently accelerate cement hydration. As a physical filler, NA significantly accelerates the hydration of tricalcium aluminate () in cement. On the other hand, GO is able to obviously reduce the dormant period of cement hydration and shift the heat flow peaks to the left by accelerating the hydration of tricalcium silicate () in cement. Compared to plain cement pastes, both the compressive and flexural strengths of cement pastes incorporating NA or GO are significantly increased. However, when NA and GO contents exceed the optimal amounts, improvements in flexural strength tend to decline, which is probably due to particle agglomeration. NA-cement paste exhibited slightly higher electrical resistivity than plain cement paste during hydration acceleration and deceleration stages. But GO-cement paste clearly showed lower electrical resistivity, which might be attributed to iron diffusion caused by GO with large surface areas.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Australian Research Council (DE150101751, IH150100006), Australia. The authors are also grateful for the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51408210) and National Engineering Laboratory for High-speed Railway Construction, Central South University, P.R. China. The constructive comments and suggestions from Professor Surendra P. Shah at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois are also highly appreciated.
References
ASTM. (2008). “Standard practice for measuring hydration kinetics of hydraulic cementitious mixtures using isothermal calorimetry.” ASTM C1679, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2009). “Standard specification for portland cement.” ASTM C150, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2011). “Standard practice for high-shear mixing of hydraulic cement pastes.” ASTM C1738-11a, West Conshohocken, PA.
Behfarnia, K., and Salemi, N. (2013). “The effects of nano-silica and nano-alumina on frost resistance of normal concrete.” Constr. Build. Mater., 48, 580–584.
Bentz, D. P., Peltz, M. A., and Winpigler, J. (2009). “Early-age properties of cement-based materials. II: influence of water-to-cement ratio.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 512–517.
Bentz, D. P., Sato, T., Varga, I., and Weiss, W. J. (2012). “Fine limestone additions to regulate setting in high volume fly ash mixtures.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 34(1), 11–17.
Bullard, J. W., et al. (2011). “Mechanisms of cement hydration.” Cem. Concr. Res., 41(12), 1208–1223.
Campillo, I., Guerrero, A., Dolado, J. S., Porro, A., Ibáñez, J. A., and Goñi, S. (2007). “Improvement of initial mechanical strength by nanoalumina in belite cements.” Mater. Lett., 61(8–9), 1889–1892.
Chen, B., Wu, K. R., and Yao, W. (2004). “Conductivity of carbon fiber reinforced cement-based composites.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 26(4), 291–297.
Chuah, S., Pan, Z., Sanjayan, J. G., Wang, C. M., and Duan, W. H. (2014). “Nano reinforced cement and concrete composites and new perspective from graphene oxide.” Constr. Build. Mater., 73, 113–124.
Deschner, F., et al. (2012). “Hydration of portland cement with high replacement by siliceous fly ash.” Cem. Concr. Res., 42(10), 1389–1400.
Farzadnia, N., Ali, A., and Demirboga, R. (2013). “Characterization of high strength mortars with nano alumina at elevated temperatures.” Cem. Concr. Res., 54, 43–54.
Gong, K., et al. (2014). “Reinforcing effects of graphene oxide on portland cement paste.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 27(2), 1–6.
Heikal, M., Ismail, M. N., and Ibrahim, N. S. (2015). “Physico-mechanical, microstructure characteristics and fire resistance of cement pastes containing nano-particles.” Constr. Build. Mater., 91, 232–242.
Hemalatha, T., Gunavadhi, M., Bhuvaneshwari, B., Sasmal, S., and Iyer, N. R. (2015). “Characterization of micro- and nano- modified cementitious system using micro analytical techniques.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 58, 114–128.
Hou, P. K., Kawashima, S., Wang, K. J., Corr, D. J., Qian, J. S., and Shah, S. P. (2013). “Effects of colloidal nanosilica on rheological and mechanical properties of fly ash-cement mortar.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 35(1), 12–22.
Kawashima, S., Seo, J. T., Corr, D., Hersam, M., and Shah, S. P. (2013). “Dispersion of nanoparticles by sonication and surfactant treatment for application in fly ash-cement systems.” Mater. Struct., 47(6), 1011–1023.
Konsta-Gdoutos, M. S., Metaxa, Z. S., and Shah, S. P. (2010). “Multi-scale mechanical and fracture characteristics and early-age strain capacity of high performance carbon nanotube/cement nanocomposite.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 32(2), 110–115.
Li, G. Y., Wang, P. M., and Zhao, X. (2005). “Mechanical behavior and microstructure of cement composites incorporating surface-treated multi-walled carbon nanotubes.” Carbon, 43(6), 1239–1245.
Li, X. Y., et al. (2016). “Incorporation of graphene oxide and silica fume into cement paste: A study of dispersion and compressive strength.” Constr. Build. Mater., 123, 327–335.
Li, Z., Wang, H., He, S., Lu, Y., and Wang, M. (2006). “Investigations on the preparation and mechanical properties of the nano-alumina reinforced cement composite.” Mater. Lett., 60(3), 356–359.
Li, Z., Wei, X., and Li, W. (2003). “Preliminary interpretation of hydration process of portland cement using resistivity measurement.” ACI Mater. J., 100(3), 253–257.
Lootens, D., and Bentz, D. P. (2016). “On the relation of setting and early-age strength development to porosity and hydration in cement-based materials.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 68, 9–14.
Lu, Z. Y., Hou, D. S., Meng, L. S., Sun, G. X., Lu, C., and Li, Z. J. (2015). “Mechanism of cement paste reinforced by graphene oxide/carbon nanotubes composites with enhanced mechanical properties.” RSC Adv., 5(122), 100598–100605.
Mohammed, A., Sanjayan, J. G., Duan, W. H., and Nazari, A. (2015). “Incorporating graphene oxide in cement composites: A study of transport properties.” Constr. Build. Mater., 84, 341–347.
Mohammed, A., Sanjayan, J. G., Duan, W. H., and Nazari, A. (2016). “Graphene oxide impact on hardened cement expressed in enhanced freeze-thaw resistance.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., .
Mostafa, N. Y., and Brown, P. W. (2005). “Heat of hydration of high reactive pozzolans in blended cements: Isothermal conduction calorimetry.” Thermochim. Acta, 435(2), 162–167.
Nazari, A., and Riahi, S. (2011). “ nanoparticles in concrete and different curing media.” Energy Build., 43(6), 1480–1488.
Onuaguluchi, O., Panesar, D. K., and Sain, M. (2014). “Properties of nanofibre reinforced cement composites.” Constr. Build. Mater., 63, 119–124.
Pan, Z., et al. (2015). “Mechanical properties and microstructure of a graphene oxide-cement composite.” Cem. Concr. Compos., 58, 140–147.
Pane, I., and Hansen, W. (2005). “Investigation of blended cement hydration by isothermal calorimetry and thermal analysis.” Cem. Concr. Res., 35(6), 1155–1164.
Park, J. H., Choudhury, A., Farmer, B. L., Dang, T. D., and Park, S. Y. (2012). “Chemically modified graphene oxide/polybenzimidazobenzo phenanthroline nanocomposites with improved electrical conductivity.” Polymer, 53(18), 3937–3945.
Sanchez, F., and Sobolev, K. (2010). “Nanotechnology in concrete—A review.” Constr. Build. Mater., 24(11), 2060–2071.
Skalny, J., and Young, J. F. (1980). “Mechanisms of portland cement hydration.” Proc., 7th Int. Conf. on the Chemistry of Cement, Paris, 1–45.
Sobolev, K., and Shah, S. P. (2015). “Nanotechnology in construction.” Proc., NICOM5, Springer, Cham, Switzerland.
Taylor, H. F. W. (1997). Cement chemistry, Thomas Telford Services, London.
Wei, X., and Li, Z. (2005). “Study on hydration of portland cement with fly ash using electrical measurement.” Mater. Struct., 38(3), 411–417.
Wei, X., and Li, Z. (2006). “Early hydration process of portland cement paste by electrical measurement.” J. Mater. Civ. Eng., 99–105.
Xie, P., Gu, P., and Beaudoin, J. (1996). “Electrical percolation phenomena in cement composites containing conductive fibres.” J. Mater. Sci., 31(15), 4093–4097.
Xu, Z., and Gao, C. (2011). “Aqueous liquid crystals of graphene oxide.” ACS Nano, 5(4), 2908–2915.
Zhang, J., Qin, J., and Li, Z. J. (2009). “Hydration monitoring of cement-based materials with resistivity and ultrasonic methods.” Mater. Struct., 42(1), 15–24.
Zhang, M. H., and Jahidul, I. (2012). “Use of nano-silica to reduce setting time and increase early strength of concretes with high volumes of fly ash or slag.” Constr. Build. Mater., 29, 573–580.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 9 • September 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 13, 2016
Accepted: Dec 30, 2016
Published ahead of print: Apr 11, 2017
Published online: Apr 12, 2017
Published in print: Sep 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Sep 12, 2017
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.