Silicate hydration is prevalent in natural and technological processes, such as, mineral weathering, glass alteration, zeolite syntheses and cement hydration. Tricalcium silicate (Ca3SiO5), the main constituent of Portland cement, is amongst the most reactive silicates in water. Despite its widespread industrial use, the reaction of Ca3SiO5 with water to form calcium-silicate-hydrates (C-S-H) s...

C-(A)-S-H(I) is a calcium silicate hydrate that is studied extensively as a model for the main binding phase in concrete. It is a structurally imperfect form of 14 Å tobermorite that has variable composition and length of (alumino)silicate anions. New structural-chemical formulae are presented for single- and double-chain tobermorite-based phases and equations are provided that can be used to c...

This work is a systematic attempt to determine the possibilities and the limitations of the (43)Ca high field solid state NMR in the study of cement-based materials. The low natural abundance (0.135%) and small gyromagnetic ratio of (43)Ca present a serious challenge even in a high magnetic field. The NMR spectra of a number of cement compounds of known structure and composition are examined. T...

This study investigates the hydration behavior and phase evolution of portland cement composites containing montmorillonite (MT) with an objective to address poor dispersion improve physical features chemical reactivity MT through functionalization a non-ionic surfactant (polyethylene glycol ether). After functionalization, exhibited enlarged layer spacing (122%), organic bonds intercalated, im...

Understanding the state of the hydration water and the microstructure development in a cement paste is likely to be the key for the improvement of its ultimate strength and durability. In order to distinguish and characterize the reacted and unreacted water, the single-particle dynamics of water molecules in hydrated calcium silicates (C3S, C2S) and aluminates (C3A, C4AF) were studied by quasi-...

Water within pores of cementitious materials plays a crucial role in the damage processes of cement pastes, particularly in the binding material comprising calcium-silicate-hydrates (C-S-H). Here, we employed Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the properties of water confined at ambient temperature within and between C-S-H nanoparticles or "grains" as a function of the relat...