The effects of nano-C-S-H with different polymer stabilizers on early cement hydration

A promising approach to accelerate cement hydration known as “seeding technology” has been discovered using nano-particles to provide additional nucleation sites for growing of C-S-H. Two different types of polymer, polycarboxylate (PCE) and polysulfonate (PSE) were used as stabilizer to synthesize nano-C-S-H via co-precipitation process. The obtained C-S-H-polymer composites were characterized by means of XRD, FTIR, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), TEM, dynamic laser scattering (DLS), and BET. DLS measurement shows that the particle size of the obtained C-S-H-polymer suspension ranges from 82.6 to 589.9 nm. The results of DLS and BET show that the particle size of the C-S-H particles synthesized using PCE polymer as stabilizer is smaller than those synthesized with PSE polymer, and hence the specific surface area is much higher. FTIR and TGA results confirm the presence of the polymers in the obtained C-S-H composites particles. XRD results indicate that the presence of the polymers reduces the crystallinity of C-S-H due to the absence of the d002 peak at 2θ of 7°. The calorimetry results show that the main hydration peak of cement is dramatically increased by the addition of the C-S-H-polymer composites. It is interestingly found that the acceleration effect of the C-S-H-polymer composites is linearly proportional to the total surface area of the nanoparticles introduced into the cement pastes. At the same time, it is found that the secondary hydration peak, usually known as the sulfate-depletion peak, is greatly advanced by addition of the C-S-H nano-particles in comparison with the blank cement paste. The acceleration effect of the nano-C-S-H is further verified in a pure C₃S system.