Microstructure of β-Dicalcium Silicate after Accelerated Carbonation

The present work presents the microstructure of β-Ca_2SiO_4(β-C_2S) after accelerated carbonation. The synthesis procedure of β-C_2S was examined first, and the crystalline and amorphous structure, the distribution and the pore structure of β-C_2S carbonation products were also determined by X-ray diffraction(XRD) quantitative analysis, simultaneous thermal analyzer(TG/DTA), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy(FT-IR), high resolution ~(29)Si magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance(~(29)Si NMR), N_2-sorption techniques, and scanning electron microscopy(SEM), respectively. Test results indicate that carbonation products are dramatically formed in the initial 2 h. The main carbonation products are crystalline calcite and amorphous three-dimensional network silica gels, which contain nanometer-sized pores. The calcite, silica gels and un-carbonated β-C_2S are distributed hierarchically.