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Internal Curing Mechanism of Sepiolite in Cement Paste

  • Cementitious Materials
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Abstract

In order to explore the internal curing mechanism of sepiolite in cement-based materials, the effects of sepiolite on the water consumption of standard consistency, setting time, viscosity, strength, pore structure characteristics, micro-hardness characteristics and two-dimensional surface characteristics of cement paste were studied, respectively. The experimental results show that the water consumption of standard consistency increases linearly with the increase of sepiolite content. The setting time and viscosity are also lengthened and increased with the addition of sepiolite, respectively. When the content of sepiolite exceeds 5%, the strength of the specimen increases significantly. The BET results show that the pore structure of the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) in hardened cement paste (HCP) with sepiolite is optimized after curing for 28 d and its pore volume content with below 10 nm is decreased, especially for the specimen with a lower water-cement ratio. The characteristics of microhardness and strength of specimens have the same law. Backscattered electron image (BSE-IA) shows that the ITZ of the specimen with sepiolite is denser and the unhydrated cement particles are less than the reference specimen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hebei Key Laboratory of New Materials for Collaborative Development of Traffic Engineering and Environment, Shijiazhuang, 050043, China

    Chenxi Xu  (许晨席), Caihui Wang  (王彩辉), Wenhao Li, Kaili Sun, Guowen Sun & Lijuan Kong

  2. China State Construction Technical Center, Bei**g, 101300, China

    Kaili Sun

  3. China Railway 18th Bureau Group Co. Ltd, Tian**, 300222, China

    Guangxing Zhang

Authors
  1. Chenxi Xu  (许晨席)
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  2. Caihui Wang  (王彩辉)
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  3. Wenhao Li
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  4. Kaili Sun
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  5. Guangxing Zhang
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  6. Guowen Sun
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  7. Lijuan Kong
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Correspondence to Caihui Wang  (王彩辉).

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All authors declare that there are no competing interests.

Funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51408380), the Science and Technology Plan of He Bei Province (No.E2021210033), and the Scientific and Technological Development Funds of the Central Government Shall Guide Local (No.216Z3801G)

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Xu, C., Wang, C., Li, W. et al. Internal Curing Mechanism of Sepiolite in Cement Paste. J. Wuhan Univ. Technol.-Mat. Sci. Edit. 38, 857–864 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11595-023-2769-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11595-023-2769-2

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