Internal Curing Mechanism of Sepiolite in Cement Paste

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.

Keywords

sepiolite / cement paste / internal curing

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