Is freeze-drying an alternative to solvent exchange for the hydration stop of cementitious suspensions?

In order to understand the rheological properties of cementitious suspensions at early stages, among other phases, formation ettringite and its time-dependent influence, whether by amount or morphology, has be examined in detail using a suitable method stop hydration process. It is state-of-the-art exchange water with isopropanol, however, initially remains system possibly leading reduced time resolution. Our group raised question if freeze-drying combination water-isopropanol subsequent might technique achieve an almost complete any time. Recently, it was shown under which circumstances low-pressure characterization techniques can employed without destroying samples due loss crystal bound water. Here, implementing these recent results, we show indeed as fast method.