Hydration process of cement in the presence of a cellulosic additive. A calorimetric investigation.

In the cement industry, the extrusion technique is used to produce flat shapes with improved resistance to compression. Extrusion is a plastic-forming process that consists of forcing a highly viscous plastic mixture through a shaped die. The material should be fluid enough to be mixed and to pass through the die, and on the other hand, the extruded specimen should be stiff enough to be handled without changing in shape or cracking. These characteristics are industrially obtained by adding cellulosic polymers to the mixture. The aim of this work is to understand the action mechanism of these additives on the major pure phases constituting a typical Portland cement: tricalcium silicate (C(3)S), dicalcium silicate (C(2)S), tricalcium aluminate (C(3)A), and tetracalcium iron-aluminate (C(4)AF). In particular, a methylhydroxyethyl cellulose (MHEC) was selected from the best-performing polymers for further study. The effect of this additive on the hydration kinetics (rate constants, activation energies, and diffusional constants) was evaluated by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) while the hydration products were studied by using thermogravimetry-differential thermal analysis (TG-DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). MHEC addition in calcium silicate pastes produces an increase in the induction time without affecting the nucleation-and-growth period. A less dense CSH gel was deduced from the diffusional constants in the presence of MHEC. Moreover, CSH laminar features and poorly structured hydrates were noted during the first hours of hydration. In the case of the aluminous phases, the additive inhibits the growth of stable cubic hydrated phases (C(3)AH(6)), with the advantage of the metastable hexagonal phases being formed in the earliest minutes of hydration.