State and role of water confined in cement and composites modified with metakaolin and additives

Cement as a porous material contains pores and cracks on the whole nanoscale forming an interconnected pore structure. Its interaction with water during the rehydration of cement plays a key role in every application, such as in nuclear waste treatment, where cement binders are commonly used for conditioning liquid radioactive waste. In the prediction of the long-term disposal the knowledge of water mobility and distribution in the formed porous cement matrix is essential.In this study we systematically investigate the effects of metakaolin and several components of the liquid phase (complexing agents, model ions, boric acid, etc.) on the hydrated solid structure by various nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods. The novelty lies in the complex use of such non-conventional techniques that separately provide only partial information of the cement structure; however, the gained results complete each other to offer a new approach in the structural study under several conditions. Water mobility is deduced from NMR T2 relaxation distributions and D2O-H2O exchange diffusion measurements, and the conclusion on structural properties is supported by the macropore structure revealed from NMR cryoporometry and SEM (scanning electron microscopy) images, as well as by following the formation of pores and water domains in the curing process with NMR relaxometry. The results confirm that metakaolin was built into the CSH (calcium silicate hydrate) gel region without altering its mesoporous structure, however, it significantly decreased the capillary pore size and the diffusion coefficient of water. Complexing agent concentration between 2 and 20 g/l and the presence of model ions did not cause significant structural changes, while the rehydration decreased the size of capillary pores due to swelling.