Strength Development and Products Evolution of β-C₂S and γ-C₃S Induced by Accelerated Carbonation Curing

Abstract

Low calcium β-C₂S and γ-C₂S minerals with low hydration activity was activated by accelerated carbonation curing to be used as new binding materials. Synthetic β-C₂S and γ-C₂S were synthetized and compacted to prepare cube samples and then subjected to CO₂ chamber for accelerated carbonation curing. The CO₂ uptake, mechanical strength, and microstructure changes of β-C₂S and γ-C₂S were analyzed by TG, XRD, MAS-NMR, and MIP. The experimental results indicate the CO₂ uptake of γ-C₂S is much higher than that of β-C₂S, but the compressive strength of γ-C₂S samples is lower than that of β-C₂S. Calcium carbonate and other carbonation products stack in the pore structure and the porosity is reduced from about 42% to 30.1% and 22.0% for β-C₂S and γ-C₂S samples after 2 h carbonation curing, respectively. The difference in compressive strength development is caused by the different properties of carbonation products. Except for calcium carbonate, there also exists obvious difference in properties of amorphous phases: γ-C₂S formed silica gel in the whole carbonation progress; however, β-C₂S can react to produce silica gel and C-S-H gel with high Van der Waals forces, and C-S-H gel will continue to react with CO₂ to form calcium carbonate and silica gel in later carbonation reaction; In addition the microhardness of carbonated β-C₂S was more higher than that of γ-C₂S.

Keywords

dicalcium silicate / carbonation / CO₂ uptake / hardening / microstructure

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