Microstructure and texture of cementitious porous materials.

We have characterized the microstructure of different cementitious materials (white and Portland cement pastes, mortars, concretes) by different magnetic resonance techniques. In particular, we show how the measurement of proton nuclear magnetic spin-lattice relaxation as a function of magnetic field strength (and hence nuclear Larmor frequency) can provide reliable information on the dynamics of proton species at the surface of CSH, the specific surface area and the pore size distribution throughout the progressive hydration of cement-based materials. The measurement does not require any drying temperature modification and is sufficiently fast to be applied continuously during the progressive hydration of the material. Coupling this method with the standard proton nuclear spin relaxation and high-resolution NMR allows us to follow the development of microscale texture within the material.