Abstract

The durability improvement of cement-based infrastructure is an effective strategy to achieve sustainable development and reduce the carbon footprint. In this work, a biomimetic anisotropic hydrogel, alginate/polyacrylamide/halloysite nanotubes hybrid hydrogel (SA/AM/HNTs-RDC), was fabricated as a self-healing agent to enhance the self-healing ability and extend the service life of cement-based infrastructure. The effects of SA/AM/HNTs-RDC hydrogel on the formation and deposition of healing products and the self-healing behavior of cement in the different conditions (water condition and CO2-rich condition) were investigated. Compared with the matrix hydrogel (alginate/polyacrylamide, SA/AM), the crosslinking ions and anisotropic microstructure of SA/AM/HNTs-RDC hydrogel can stimulate the massive formation and dense deposition of healing products (ettringite (AFt) and monosulfo aluminate (AFm) in the simulated water condition, calcite and AFt in CO2-rich condition) to accelerate the performance recovery of the damaged construction. The self-healing measurements exhibited that the cracks around 200 μm in the cement paste with 1 % anisotropic hydrogel (RDC1) can be sealed completely after 14-day-curing in water, and its recovery ratio of the compressive strength increased by about 10 % compared with control samples. In CO2-rich condition, the closure rate of cracks was accelerated and the complete healing of cracks with similar width only needed 7 days. The compressive strength recovery increased by 13.7 % over control samples.

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