Dynamical scaling and isotope effect in temporal evolution of mesoscopic structure during hydration of cement

TL;DR

This study investigates the complex, nonlinear evolution of mesoscopic structures during cement hydration using neutron scattering, revealing isotope effects and challenging existing dynamical scaling hypotheses.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the isotope-dependent dynamics of cement hydration, highlighting nonlinear behavior with mixed water isotopes.

Findings

Disagreement with previous dynamical scaling hypotheses.

Nonlinear evolution of mesoscopic structures with mixed water isotopes.

Revealed isotope effects in hydration dynamics.

Abstract

The evolution of mesoscopic structure for cement-water mixtures turning into colloidal gels remains far from being understood. Recent neutron scattering investigations (Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 255704 (2004); Phys. Rev. B. 72, 224208 (2005); Phys. Rev. B. 82, 064203 (2010)),, reveal the role of hydrogen bond in temporal evolution of the mesoscopic structure during hydration of cement which is the most consumed synthetic material. The present neutron scattering investigation on hydration of cement with a mixture of light and heavy water points to incomprehensibility of the temporal evolution of the mesoscopic structure in terms of earlier observations on hydration with pure light or heavy water. Unlike in the case of hydration with light water, disagreement has been observed with the hypothesis of dynamical scaling for hydration of cement with a mixture of the two types of water. The dynamics of evolution of the mesoscopic structure has been observed to be nonlinear in regard to the composition of hydration medium.