Synthesis and Flocculation of Polyacrylamide with Low Water Absorption for Non-dispersible Underwater Concrete

Abstract

The polyacrylamide which is directly added into concrete shows strong water absorption property. Thus the construction of underwater constructure would demand high amount of water, resulting in poor workability of concrete and strength shrinkage after hardening. Herein, a kind of anionic polyacrylamide (APAM) grafted with water reducing functional group (-COOH) was synthesized at low temperatures by partial factor design and response surface design. The structure and morphology of APAM were characterized by UV, FTIR and SEM methods. The experimental results show that the molecular weight of the synthesized APAM could reach 11 million, under the condition that the temperature was 35 °C, the pH value was 8, the monomer concentration was 27wt%, the initiator dosage was 0.6wt%, and the monomer ratio (n(AM): n(AA)) was 3. When the APAM was applied into the underwater slurry, it presented good flocculation and low water demand. When the dosage was 1% of the mass of the cement, the water demand increased by 12%, which could meet the self-leveling and anti-dispersity of the underwater slurry at the same time. This technology provides technical guidance for the large-scale industrial production of polyacrylamide for underwater concrete construction while achieving environmental protection during production.

Keywords

non-dispersible underwater concrete / anionic polyacrylamide / partial factor design / response surface design / flocculation

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