Fabrication and characterization of nano colloid surfaced concrete

How far the concrete can be used as finishing material depends on how smooth it can be. In this work an ultra smooth concrete surface is fabricated with a method taking use of the nano granular nature of Calcium Silicate Hydrate (C-S-H) i.e. the main hydration product of cement. The reflection of people in the concrete “mirror” could be recognized, there is no defect except some small splashes found on the surface of this concrete when it was observed with optical microscopy, the surface of this concrete is covered with nano particles of Calcium Silicate Hydrates (C-S-H) sized around 10 nm when characterized by FSEM and AFM, the C-S-H nano granular particles incline to agglomerate into groups. The mean roughness of the concrete surface is around 1–10 nm when quantified with AFM in a scanning area of 1.0 × 1.0 μm², its micro hardness is around 45 MPa.