Synthesis and Performance of Anticlay Polycarboxylate Superplasticizers
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 36, Issue 9
Abstract
Polycarboxylate superplasticizers (PCEs) have been extensively used in the areas of construction and building; however, the application limitation of PCEs has emerged owing to their sensitivity to clay. In this work, three anticlay PCEs were synthesized by introducing acrylamide (AM), methacryloxyethyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (DMC), or 3-[2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl] dimethylammonio-propane-1-sulfonate (DMAPS) into the polycarboxylate copolymer of ethylene glycol monovinyl polyethylene glycol ether (EPEG) and acrylic acid (AA), denoted as A-PCE, D-PCE, and S-PCE, respectively. The structures of these superplasticizers were characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Compared with the common polycarboxylate superplasticizers (O-PCEs), the resultant anticlay PCEs showed better dispersion as far as the fluidity of cement paste and mortar were concerned. With the content of 0.5% per weight sodium bentonite in place of cement, these anticlay PCEs exhibited better clay resistance than O-PCE. In addition, the compressive strengths of mortar and concrete by the addition of A-PCE, D-PCE, or S-PCE were slightly higher than those of O-PCE. Total organic carbon (TOC) revealed that the sensitivity of A-PCE, D-PCE, and S-PCE to clay was lower than that of O-PCE. X-ray diffraction (XRD) proved that the layer spacing of clay increased after treatment with superplasticizer. In combination of adsorption determination with XRD analysis, a possible mechanism was proposed. Unlike the PEG side chains inserting into the clay layers for O-PCE, the cations in functional groups entered the clay layers through cation exchange for anticlay PCEs preferentially.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The support of Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. ZR2022ME135) was gratefully acknowledged.
Author contributions: Cuizhen Zhang: investigation, data curation, and writing–original draft. Xinde Tang: conceptualization, supervision, and writing–review and editing. Xiaodong Chen: investigation and data curation. Haichao Guo: investigation and data curation. Xuefan Li: investigation and data. Laixue Pang: formal analysis and supervision. Yong Yang: data curation. Fuying Dong: methodology and writing–review and editing.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 36 • Issue 9 • September 2024
Copyright
© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 10, 2023
Accepted: Feb 9, 2024
Published online: Jun 17, 2024
Published in print: Sep 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Nov 17, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Adsorption
- Building materials
- Cement
- Chemical processes
- Chemistry
- Clays
- Concrete
- Construction engineering
- Construction management
- Engineering materials (by type)
- Environmental engineering
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Layered soils
- Materials engineering
- Mortars
- Pollution
- Soil mechanics
- Soil pollution
- Soil treatment
- Soils (by type)
- Sorption
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