Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 570578

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Composites: Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

The effects of SiO2 nanoparticles on physical and mechanical properties

of high strength compacting concrete
Ali Nazari , Shadi Riahi
Department of Technical and Engineering Sciences, Islamic Azad University (Saveh Branch), Saveh, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this work, compressive, exural and split tensile strengths together with coefcient of water absorp-
Received 11 August 2010 tion of high strength self compacting concrete containing different amount of SiO2 nanoparticles have
Received in revised form 23 September been investigated. Strength and water permeability of the specimens have been improved by adding
2010
SiO2 nanoparticles in the cement paste up to 4.0 wt.%. SiO2 nanoparticle could accelerate CSH gel for-
Accepted 29 September 2010
mation as a result of increased crystalline Ca(OH)2 amount especially at the early age of hydration and
Available online 8 October 2010
increase the strength of the specimens. In addition, SiO2 nanoparticles are able to act as nanollers
and recover the pore structure of the specimens by decreasing harmful pores. Several empirical relations
Keywords:
A. Ceramic-matrix composites (CMCs)
have been presented to predict exural and split tensile strength of the specimens by means of compres-
B. Mechanical properties sive strength at a certain age of curing. Accelerated peak appearance in conduction calorimetry tests,
B. Strength more weight loss in thermogravimetric analysis and more rapid appearance of peaks related to hydrated
D. Thermal analysis products in X-ray diffraction results, all also indicate that SiO2 nanoparticles up to 4 wt.% could improve
the mechanical and physical properties of the specimens.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Nearly all research has used SCC which includes active addi-
tions to satisfy the great demand for nes needed for this type of
Advancements in concrete technology have resulted in the concrete, thereby improving their mechanical properties in com-
development of a new type of concrete, which is known as self parison with NVC. Kning et al. [3] and Hauke [4] registered
compacting high performance concrete (SCHPC). The qualities of strength increase in SCCs made with different amount of y ash.
SCHPC are based on the concept of self compacting high perfor- According to Fava et al. [5], in SCCs with granulated blast furnace
mance concretes. Self compacting concrete (SCC) is a uid concrete slag, this increase is also evident. On the other hand, when lime-
that spreads through congested reinforcement, lls every corner of stone ller is used, Fava et al. [5] and Daoud et al. [6] achieved a
the formwork, and is consolidated under its weight [1]. SCC neces- tensile strength in SCC lower than the other normal types of
sitates excellent lling ability, good passing ability, and adequate concrete.
segregation resistance. But it does not include high strength and Besides strength assessments, permeability of concrete is de-
good durability as signicant performance criteria. On the other ned as the movement of liquid and/or gas through a mass of con-
hand, high performance concrete (HPC) has been dened as a con- crete under a constant pressure gradient. It is an inherent property
crete that is appropriately designed, mixed, placed, consolidated, of concrete that chiey depends upon the geometric arrangement
and cured to provide high strength and low convey properties or and characteristics of the constituent materials. The permeability
good durability [2]. HPC exhibits good segregation resistance, but of concrete is mainly controlled by the solidity and porosity of
does not provide excellent lling and passing ability, and therefore the hydrated paste present in bulk paste matrix and interfacial
needs external means such as rodding or vibration for suitable con- transition zone. In the hydrated paste, the capillary and gel pores
solidation. Hence, a concrete that fullls the performance criteria can be distinguished. The gel pores are very small. Although they
of both SCC and HPC can be referred to as SCHPC. An SCHPC is that constitute a network of open pores, the permeability of this net-
concrete which offers excellent performance with respect to lling work is very low. Conversely, the capillary pores are relatively
ability, passing capability, segregation resistance, strength, trans- large spaces existing between the cement grains. It is the capillary
port properties and durability. porosity that greatly affects the permeability of concrete [7]. The
permeability of SCHPC is typically lower than that of ordinary con-
crete. Some researches have shown that SCHPC results in very low
Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 255 2241511. water and gas permeability [8,9]. This is mostly attributed to the
E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Nazari). superior ow properties, dense microstructure and rened pore.

1359-8368/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compositesb.2010.09.025
 A. Nazari, S. Riahi / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 570578 571

Table 1
Properties of Portland cement (wt.%).

Material SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO MgO SO3 Na2O K2O Loss on ignition
Cement 21.89 5.3 3.34 53.27 6.45 3.67 0.18 0.98 3.21

Specic gravity: 1.7 g/cm3.

Good ow properties result in superb packing condition due to bet- their physical and mechanical properties have been considered
ter consolidation, and thus contribute to reduce the permeability of when, instead of cement, SiO2 nanoparticles were partially added
concrete. to the cement paste.
Since strength assessments and water permeability of concrete
are joined together to affect the nal performance of concrete, con-
2. Materials and methods
sidering mechanical properties in terms of various types of
strengths together with physical properties of concrete specimens
Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) conforming to ASTM C150 [41]
seems essential. Hence, in this work, both physical and mechanical
standard was used as received. The chemical and physical proper-
properties of concrete have been studied.
ties of the cement are shown in Table 1. The particle size distribu-
As authors knowledge, there are few works on incorporating
tion pattern of the used OPC has been illustrated in Fig. 1.
nanoparticles about SCCs to achieve improved physical and
SiO2 nanoparticles with average particle size of 15 nm and
mechanical properties. Only, there are several reports on incorpo-
45 m2/g Blaine neness producing from Suzhou Fuer Import &
ration of nanoparticles in NVCs which most of them have focused
Export Trade Co., Ltd. was used as received. The properties of
on using SiO2 nanoparticles [1019] and TiO2 nanoparticles
SiO2 nanoparticles are shown in Table 2. Scanning electron micro-
[20,21]. There are a few studies on incorporating nano-Fe2O3
graphs (SEM) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) diagrams of SiO2
[22], nano-Al2O3 [23], and nanoclay particles [24,25]. Additionally,
nanoparticles are shown in Figs. 2 and 3.
a limited number of investigations are dealing with the manufac-
Crushed limestone aggregates were used to produce self-
ture of nanosized cement particles and the development of nano-
compacting concretes, with gravel 4/12 and two types of sand:
binders [26]. Previously, a series of works [2734] has been
one coarse 0/4, for ne aggregates and the other ne 0/2, with a
conducted on cementitious composites by adding different nano-
very high nes content (particle size <0.063 mm) of 19.2%, the
particles evaluating the mechanical properties of the composites.
main function of which was to provide a greater volume of ne
Nanoparticles can act as heterogeneous nuclei for cement pastes,
materials to improve the stability of the fresh concrete.
further accelerating cement hydration because of their high reac-
A polycarboxylate with a polyethylene condensate defoamed
tivity, as nano-reinforcement, and as nano-ller, densifying the
based admixture (Glenium C303 SCC) was used. Table 3 shows
microstructure, thereby, leading to a reduced porosity. The most
some of the physical and chemical properties of polycarboxylate
signicant issue for all nanoparticles is that of effective dispersion.
admixture used in this study.
Though it is particularly signicant at high loads, even low loads
Totally, two series of mixtures were prepared in the laboratory
experience problems with self-aggregation, which reduces the
trials. C0-SCC series mixtures were prepared by cement, ne and
benets of their small size and creates un-reacted pockets leads
ultra-ne crushed limestone aggregates with 19.2% by weight of
to a potential for concentration of stresses in the material. SiO2
ultra-ne ones and 1.0% by weight of polycarboxylate admixture
nanoparticles have been found to improve concrete strength
replaced by water. N-SCC series were prepared with different con-
[11,18,35], to increase resistance to water permeability [36], and
tents of SiO2 nanoparticles with average particle size of 15 nm. The
to help control the leaching of calcium [37], which is closely asso-
mixtures were prepared with the cement replacement by SiO2
ciated with various types of concrete degradation. SiO2 nanoparti-
nanoparticles from 1.0 to 5.0 wt.% and 1.0 wt.% polycarboxylate
cles, in addition, have been shown to promote the hydration
admixture. The superplasticizer was dissolved in water, and then
reactions of C3S as a result of the large and highly reactive surface
the nano-SiO2 was added and stirred at a high speed for 3 min.
of the nanoparticles [19,38]. SiO2 nanoparticles have been found to
be more efcient in enhancing strength than silica fume [39,40].
Adding 10% SiO2 nanoparticles with dispersing agents has been ob- 120
Percentage finer than

served to increase the compressive strength of cementitious com-

100
posites at 28 days by as much as 26%, compared to only a 10%
increase with adding 15% silica fume [19]. Even the addition of 80
small amounts of SiO2 nanoparticles has been observed to increase 60
the strength results in improving the 28 day compressive strength 40
by 10% and exural strength by 25% [11]. However, these results
20
depend on the production route and conditions of synthesis of
SiO2 nanoparticles (e.g., molar ratios of the reagents, the type of 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
reaction media, and duration of the reaction for the solgel meth-
Particle size (m)
od) and that dispersion of SiO2 nanoparticles in the paste plays an
important role. SiO2 nanoparticles not only behaved as nanoller Fig. 1. Particles distribution pattern of ordinary Portland cement.
to improve the microstructure but also as an activator to accelerate
pozzolanic reactions [39].
The aim of this study is incorporating SiO2 nanoparticles into
SCCs to study compressive strength and water permeability of self Table 2
compacting high strength concrete. In addition, pore structure, The properties of nano-SiO2.
thermal properties and microstructure of the concrete specimens Diameter (nm) Surface volume ratio (m2/g) Density (g/cm3) Purity (%)
have been evaluated. Several specimens with a constant amount
15 3 165 17 <0.15 >99.9
of polycarboxylate superplasticizer (PC) have been prepared and
572 A. Nazari, S. Riahi / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 570578

Table 4
Mixture proportion of nano-SiO2 particles blended self-compacting concretes.

Sample SiO2 nanoparticles PC content Quantities (kg/m3)

designation (%) (%)
Cement SiO2
nanoparticles
C0-SCC1 0 1.0 450 0
N1-SCC1 1 1.0 445.5 4.5
N2-SCC1 2 1.0 441.0 9.0
N3-SCC1 3 1.0 437.5 13.5
N4-SCC1 4 1.0 432.0 18.0
N5-SCC1 5 1.0 427.5 22.5

Water to binder [cement + nano-SiO2] ratio of 0.40.

Several types of tests were carried out on the prepared

Fig. 2. SEM micrograph of SiO2 nanoparticles.
specimens:

a. Strength evaluation tests: Cubic specimens with 100 mm

edge length for compressive tests. Cylindrical specimens
with the diameter of 150 mm and the height of 300 mm
for split tensile tests and Cubic specimens with 200 mm 
50 mm  50 mm edges length for exural tests were made.
The moulds were covered with polyethylene sheets and
moistened for 24 h. Then the specimens were demoulded
and cured in water at a temperature of 20 C in the room
condition prior to test days. The strength tests of the sam-
ples were determined at 2, 7 and 28 days of curing. Com-
pressive tests were carried out according to the ASTM C 39
[43] standard, split tensile tests were done in accordance
to the ASTM C 496 [44] standard and exural tests were per-
formed conforming to the ASTM C 293 [45] standard. After
the specied curing period was over, the concrete cubes
were subjected to related test by using universal testing
machine. The tests were carried out triplicately and average
strength values were obtained.
b. Water permeability tests: Water permeability tests are per-
formed with several methods such as percentage of water
Fig. 3. XRD analysis of SiO2 nanoparticles. absorption, rate of water absorption and coefcient of water
absorption. In this work, to evaluate the water permeability
of the specimens, percentage of water absorption is an eval-
uation of the pore volume or porosity of concrete after hard-
Table 3 ening, which is occupied by water in saturated state. Water
Physical and chemical characteristics of the polycarboxylate absorption values of SiO2 nanoparticle blended concrete
admixture. samples were measured as per ASTM C 642 [46] after 2, 7
Appearance Yellowbrown liquid and 28 days of moisture curing.
% Solid residue Approximately 36% c. Mercury intrusion porosimetry: There are several methods
pH 5.25.3 generally used to measure the pore structure, such as optics
Specic gravity (kg/l) Approximately 1.06 method, mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), helium ow
Rotational Viscosity (MPa) 79.30
%C 52.25
and gas adsorption [47]. MIP technique is extensively used
ppm Na+ 9150 to characterize the pore structure in porous material as a
ppm K+ 158 result of its simplicity, quickness and wide measuring range
of pore diameter [47,48]. MIP provides information about
the connectivity of pores [47].

Though nano-SiO2 cannot be dissolved in water, a smaller amount In this study, the pore structure of concrete is evaluated by
of nano-SiO2 can be dispersed evenly by the superplasticizer [11]. using MIP. To prepare the samples for MIP measurement, the con-
The water to binder ratio for all mixtures was set at 0.40 [42]. The crete specimens after 28 days of curing were rst broken into
binder content of all mixtures was 450 kg/m3. The proportions of smaller pieces, and then the cement paste fragments selected from
the mixtures are presented in Table 4. the center of prisms were used to measure pore structure. The
The mixing sequence for SCCs was consisted of homogenizing samples were immersed in acetone to stop hydration as fast as
the sand and cementitious materials for 1 min in the mixer and possible. Before mercury intrusion test, the samples were dried
then approximately 75% of the mixing water were added. The in an oven at about 110 C until constant weight to remove mois-
coarse aggregate was introduced and then the superplasticizer ture in the pores. MIP is based on the assumption that the non-
was pre-dissolved in the remaining water and was added at the wetting liquid mercury (the contact angle between mercury and
end of the mixing sequence. The total mixing time including solid is greater than 90) will only intrude in the pores of porous
homogenizing was 5 min. material under pressure [47,48]. Each pore size is quantitatively
 A. Nazari, S. Riahi / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 570578 573

determined from the relationship between the volume of intruded a deciency in strength as it replaces part of the cementitious
mercury and the applied pressure [48]. The relationship between material but does not contribute to strength. Also, it may be due
the pore diameter and applied pressure is generally described by to the defects generated in dispersion of nanoparticles that causes
Washburn equation as follows [47,48]: weak zones. The higher compressive strength in the N-SCC series
mixtures with respect to C0-SCC series is due to the rapid con-
D 4c cos h=P 1
sumption of crystalline Ca(OH)2 which quickly are formed during
where D is the pore diameter (nm), c is the surface tension of mer- hydration of Portland cement specially at early ages as a result of
cury (dyne/cm), h is the contact angle between mercury and solid () high reactivity of SiO2 nanoparticles. As a consequence, the hydra-
and P is the applied pressure (MPa). tion of cement is accelerated and larger volumes of reaction prod-
The test apparatus used for pore structure measurement is Auto ucts are formed. Also SiO2 nanoparticles recover the particle
Pore III mercury porosimeter. Mercury density is 13.5335 g/ml. The packing density of the blended cement, directing to a reduced
surface tension of mercury is taken as 485 dynes/cm, and the con- volume of larger pores in the cement paste.
tact angle selected is 130. The maximum measuring pressure ap- Table 5 also shows the split tensile strength and the exural
plied is 200 MPa (30,000 psi), which means that the smallest pore strength of C0-SCC and N-SCC series concretes. Similar to the com-
diameter that can be measured reaches about 6 nm (on the pressive strength, the split tensile strength and the exural
assumption that all pores have cylindrical shape). strength of all N-SCC specimens is more than those of C0-SCC spec-
imens. In addition, the split tensile strength and the exural
(d) Conduction calorimetry: The test was run out on a Wexham strength of N-SCC series is increased by adding SiO2 nanoparticles
Developments JAF model isothermal calorimeter, using up to 4.0 wt.% and then it is decreased, similar to the compressive
IBM program AWCAL-4, at 22 C for a maximum of 70 h. Fif- strength results. Since evaluations of strength with different tests
teen grams of cement was mixed with water and saturated are not affordable, here, the relationship between compressive
limewater and admixture before introducing it into the cal- strength and split tensile strength, and the relationship between
orimeter cell. compressive strength and exural strength is presented. Fig. 4ac
(e) Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA): A Netzsch model STA 409 shows the relationship between the splitting tensile strength and
simultaneous thermal analyzer equipped with a Data Acqui- compressive strength of all mixes cured for 2, 7 and 28 days,
sition System 414/1 programmer was used for the tests. respectively. In addition, Figs. 5ac shows the relationship be-
Specimens which were cured for 28 days were heated from tween the exural strength and compressive strength of all mixes
110 to 650 C, at a heating rate of 4 C/min and in an inert cured for 2, 7 and 28 days, respectively. In all curves, a logarithmic
N2 atmosphere. relation has been adopted to show this relationship. The R2 values
(f) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM): SEM investigations were are also given in the gures and show a good compatibility be-
conducted on a Hitachi Model S-9260 CD-SEM apparatus. tween two specied strength. As gures show, at every age of cur-
Backscattered electron (BSE) and secondary electron (SE) ing, one may predict a specied strength by knowing at least one of
imaging was used to study the samples, which were pre- the specimens strength.
pared under conditions that ensured their subsequent via- In addition, Table 5 shows the percentage of water absorption of
bility for analytical purposes. the specimens. As Table 5 shows, the percentage of water absorp-
(g) X-ray diffraction (XRD): A Philips PW-1730 unit was used for tion in C0-SCC specimens at 2 days of is lower than that of N-SCC
XRD analysis which was taken from 4 to 70. series while at 7 and 28 days of curing, this value is lower for N-
SCC series concrete. This may be due to more formation of hy-
drated products in N-SCC series at the early ages of curing. As men-
3. Results and discussion tioned above, SiO2 nanoparticles accelerate formation of cement
hydrates and hence the specimens needs more water to produce
Table 5 shows the compressive strength of C0-SCC and N-SCC these products. Therefore, at 2 days of curing, the consumption of
specimens at 2, 7 and 28 days of curing. The results show that water in N-SCC series is more than in C0-SCC series concrete. At
the compressive strength increases by adding SiO2 nanoparticles 7 and 28 days of curing, the pore structure of N-SCC series concrete
up to 4.0 wt.% replacements (N4-SCC series) and then it decreases, is improved and water permeability of these series is decreased
although adding 5.0% SiO2 nanoparticles produces specimens with with respect to the C0-SCC series concrete.
much higher compressive strength with respect to C0-SCC and Table 5 also shows that the percentage of water absorption in
N-SCC specimens with 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 wt.% SiO2 nanoparticles. N-SCC series at 7 and 28 ages of curing is decreased by increasing
The reduced compressive strength by adding more than 4 wt.% the SiO2 nanoparticles content up to 4.0 wt.% and then it is in-
SiO2 nanoparticles may be due to this fact that the quantity of creased. Once again, this may be due to unsuitable dispersion of
SiO2 nanoparticles present in the mix is higher than the amount the nanoparticles in the cement paste when the content of the
required to combine with the liberated lime during the process nanoparticles goes beyond 4 wt.%. On the other hand, at 2 days of
of hydration thus leading to excess silica leaching out and causing curing, more water requirement by increasing nanoparticles

Table 5
Strength assessments and water permeability of C0-SCC and N-SCC specimens.

Sample SiO2 nanoparticles (%) Compressive strength (MPa) Split tensile strength (MPa) Flexural strength (MPa) Percentage of water absorption (%)
designation
2 days 7 days 28 days 2 days 7 days 28 days 2 days 7 days 28 days 2 days 7 days 28 days
C0-SCC1 0 14.0 20.6 31.6 0.4 1.2 1.6 2.8 3.7 4.2 2.30 4.28 3.89
N1-SCC1 1 16.4 26.5 38.7 1.0 1.5 1.9 3.0 4.0 4.4 3.72 1.91 1.76
N2-SCC1 2 17.8 31.8 42.1 1.5 2.02 2.4 3.3 4.3 5.4 4.01 1.82 1.54
N3-SCC1 3 19.6 35.8 49.0 2.0 2.4 3.1 3.4 4.7 6.1 4.35 1.70 1.28
N4-SCC1 4 20.8 41.4 55.1 2.3 2.9 3.5 3.6 5.3 6.9 4.71 1.44 1.06
N5-SCC1 5 20.1 38.9 53.6 2.1 2.6 3.2 3.5 5.0 6.6 4.51 1.53 1.18
574 A. Nazari, S. Riahi / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 570578

(a) (a)

(b) (b)

(c) (c)
Fig. 4. The relationship between split tensile strength and compressive strength of
Fig. 5. The relationship between exural strength and compressive strength of the
the specimens cured at (a) 2 days, (b) 7 days and (c) 28 days. C denotes compressive
specimens cured at (a) 2 days, (b) 7 days and (c) 28 days. C denotes compressive
strength and S denotes split tensile strength.
strength and F denotes exural strength.

content up to 4.0 wt.% results in the decreased the coefcient of

water absorption. Therefore, it can be suggested that with pro- Table 6 also gives the porosities, average diameters and median
longed curing, increasing the ages and percentages of SiO2 nano- diameters (volume) of various concretes. The regularity of porosity
particles can lead to reduction in permeable voids. This is due to is similar to that of total specic pore volume. The regularity of
the pozzolanic action and ller effects of SiO2 nanoparticles. An- average diameter and median diameter (volume) is similar to that
other nding is that the interfacial transition zone in concrete of most probable pore diameter.
had improved due to pozzolanic reaction as well as ller effect of The pore size distribution of concretes is shown in Table 6. It is
the SiO2 nanoparticles. This nding is partially in conrmation of observed that by adding nanoparticles, the amounts of is pores de-
the results of the study by Bui et al. [49]. creased, which shows that the density of concretes is increased and
Table 6 shows that with increasing SiO2 nanoparticles up to the pore structure is improved.
4 wt.%, the total specic pore volumes of concretes are decreased, The effectiveness of nano-SiO2 in improving the pore structure
and the most probable pore diameters of concretes shift to smaller of concretes increases in the order: C0-SCC < N1-SCC <
pores and fall in the range of few-harm pore, which indicates that N2-SCC < N3-SCC < N5-SCC < N4-SCC. With increasing the nano-
the addition of PC renes the pore structure of concretes. Again, particles content, the reduced extent of pores in concretes is all
adding nanoparticles improves an important property of self com- decreased, and the improvement on the pore structure of concretes
pacting concrete. is weakening.

Table 6
Properties of the pores in C0-SCC and N-SCC specimens.

Sample Total specic Most probable Prosity Average Median Pore size distribution (mL/g (%))
designation pore volume pore diameter (%) diameter diameter
Pore size Few-harm Harmful Multi-harm
(mL/g) (nm) (nm) (volume) (nm)
distribution pores (20 pores (50 pores
(mL/g (%)) 50 nm) 200 nm) (>200 nm)
C0-SCC1 0.0304 14 7.17 10.2 22.2 0.0039 0.0090 0.0100 0.0038
N1-SCC1 0.0347 14.5 8.42 12.1 25.7 0.0036 0.0098 0.0105 0.0033
N2-SCC1 0.0319 14.5 8.03 11 24.0 0.0034 0.0092 0.0098 0.0029
N3-SCC1 0.0297 13.0 7.78 10.8 20.0 0.0030 0.0083 0.0078 0.0022
N4-SCC1 0.0276 12.0 7.52 10.0 14.7 0.0025 0.0075 0.0056 0.0015
N5-SCC1 0.0289 13.0 7.63 10.5 17.7 0.00280 0.0079 0.0072 0.0020
 A. Nazari, S. Riahi / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 570578 575

Table 7 The mechanism that the nanoparticles improve the pore struc-
Calorimetric results of C0-SCC and N-SCC specimens. ture of concrete can be interpreted as follows [50]: Suppose that
Sample Total heat First peak Second peak nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed in concrete and each particle
designation (kJ/kg)
Time (h) Rate (W/kg) Time (h) Rate (W/kg) is contained in a cube pattern, therefore the distance between
nanoparticles can be determined. After the hydration begins, hy-
C0-SCC1 371.7 2.4 0.71 20.6 3.41
N1-SCC1 356.9 2.4 0.72 19.3 3.12
drate products diffuse and envelop nanoparticles as kernel [51].
N2-SCC1 326.2 2.1 0.67 17.9 2.76 If the content of nanoparticles and the distance between them
N3-SCC1 309.3 1.7 0.64 16.1 2.45 are appropriate, the crystallization will be controlled to be a suit-
N4-SCC1 285.8 1.3 0.58 14.2 2.21 able state through restricting the growth of Ca(OH)2 crystal by
N5-SCC1 302.1 1.6 0.61 15.2 2.37
nanoparticles. Moreover, the nanoparticles located in cement paste
as kernel can further promote cement hydration due to their high
activity. This makes the cement matrix more homogeneous and
compact. Consequently, the pore structure of concrete is improved
Table 8 evidently such as the concrete containing nano-SiO2 in the amount
Weight loss (%) of the pastes in the range of of 1% by weight of binder [51].
110650 C at 28 days of curing of C0-SCC and With increasing the content of SiO2 nanoparticles more than
N-SCC specimens.
4 wt.%, the improvement on the pore structure of concrete is weak-
Sample designation Total heat (kJ/kg) ened. This can be attributed to that the distance between nanopar-
C0-SCC1 11.4 ticles decreases with increasing content of nanoparticles, and
N1-SCC1 12.3 Ca(OH)2 crystal cannot grow up enough due to limited space and
N2-SCC1 12.1 the crystal quantity is decreased, which leads to the ratio of crystal
N3-SCC1 11.9
N4-SCC1 11.8
to strengthening gel small and the shrinkage and creep of cement
N5-SCC1 11.6 matrix increased [52], thus the pore structure of cement matrix is
looser relatively.

Fig. 6. XRD results indicating the formation of hydrated products for different N-SCC specimens: (a) C0-SCC1, (b) N1-SCC1, (c) N2-SCC1, (d) N3-SCC1, (e) N4-SCC1 and
(f) N5-SCC1.
576 A. Nazari, S. Riahi / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 570578

On the whole, the addition of nanoparticles improves the pore cement paste. When SiO2 nanoparticles partially added to cement
structure of concrete. On the one hand, nanoparticles can act as a paste, the acceleration in formation of CH and C3H would result in
ller to enhance the density of concrete, which leads to the poros- more rapid appearance of the related peaks.
ity of concrete reduced signicantly. On the other hand, nanopar- Table 8 shows the thermogravimetric analysis results of C0-SCC
ticles cannot only act as an activator to accelerate cement and N-SCC specimens measured in the 110650 C range in which
hydration due to their high activity, but also act as a kernel in ce- dehydration of the hydrated products occurred. The results show
ment paste which makes the size of Ca(OH)2 crystal smaller and that after 28 days of curing, the loss in weight of the specimens
the tropism more stochastic. is increased by increasing SiO2 nanoparticles in concretes up to
The heat release rate values in Table 7 shows that increasing the 4 wt.%. Again, such as the results obtained for conduction calorim-
percentage of SiO2 nanoparticles up to 4 wt.% in the pastes acceler- etry, the increase in loss weight is due to more formation of CH and
ates peak times and drops heat release rate values. This is indica- C3H compounds in the cement paste.
tive of acceleration in initial cement hydration due to higher Fig. 6 shows XRD analysis of C0-SCC and N-SCC specimens at
content of SiO2 nanoparticles. SiO2 nanoparticles can accelerate different times after curing. As Fig. 6 also shows, the peak related
the cement hydration and hence increase the heat release rate. to formation of the hydrated products shifts to appear in earlier
As it is stated above, the appearance of the peaks in conduction cal- times indicating the positive impact of PC on formation of Ca(OH)2
orimetry tests are due to CH and C3H compounds formation in the and CSH gel at early age of cement hydration.

(1)

(2)

(3)
(a) (b)
Fig. 7. SEM micrographs of (a) C0-SCC1 specimen and (b) N-SCC4 specimen at 2 days (series 1), 7 days (series 2) and 28 days (series 3) of curing.
 A. Nazari, S. Riahi / Composites: Part B 42 (2011) 570578 577

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