Interaction mechanisms between organic and inorganic phases in calcium silicate hydrates/poly(vinyl alcohol) composites
Journal article, 2019

Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) emulsion is commonly used in cement-based materials to obtain higher performance. The present work investigates the interaction mechanisms between PVA and calcium silicate hydrates (C-S-H) using ambient and high pressure X-ray diffraction (XRD), 29Si magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR), nano-indentation, and molecular dynamics simulation. In a C-S-H nano-particle, small-size PVA molecules can be intercalated into the interlayer region of the calcium silicate sheets, lowering the interlayer incompressibility and the overall bulk modulus of C-S-H at the crystal length scale. At a larger length scale, the large-size PVA chains can be in the midst among the C-S-H nano-particles, decreasing the porosity, thus the indentation modulus of the meso-composite is improved.

Mechanical properties

Calcium-silicate-hydrate

Composite

High-pressure X-ray diffraction

Interaction

Author

Yang Zhou

University of California

Jiangsu Research Institute of Building Science Co., Ltd.

Southeast University

Luping Tang

Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Building Technology

Jiaping Liu

Jiangsu Research Institute of Building Science Co., Ltd.

Southeast University

Changwen Miao

Southeast University

Jiangsu Research Institute of Building Science Co., Ltd.

Cement and Concrete Research

0008-8846 (ISSN)

Vol. 125 105891

Subject Categories

Inorganic Chemistry

Physical Chemistry

Condensed Matter Physics

DOI

10.1016/j.cemconres.2019.105891

More information

Latest update

11/10/2019