Accelerated carbonation of hardened cement pastes: Influence of porosity

Abstract

Recently, with the development of accelerating mineral carbonation technology, the preparation of building materials by using carbonation curing cement-based materials has attracted wide attention. The diffusion and transfer mechanism of carbon dioxide in porous cementitious materials was the key point that restricts the improvement of materials carbonation rate. In order to obtain comprehensive information that affects accelerating carbonation rate of porous cement-based materials, this paper talks about the influences of paste porosity controlled by water to cement ratio (w/c) on carbonation and the paste micro-structures evolution. Also, mineral compositions before and after carbonation curing were evaluated. Results show that the carbonation rate, carbonation depth and compressive strength are improved after carbonation, while total porosity of complete carbonation zone decreases with the growth of paste porosity. The pores with diameter larger than 200 nm played a leading role in carbon dioxide diffusion, which were reduced by 84.25% of the total volume after carbonation curing. The carbonization reaction mainly occurred in the first six hours in carbonation curing, while the subsequent carbonation curing were unprofitable to the carbonation effect due to the generation of calcium carbonate prevents the diffusion of CO2, making the subsequent carbonation become difficult. XRD results revealed that during carbonation curing the major reactants were C2S, C3S and some hydration products of Ca(OH)2 after 1 d hydration.