Characterisation of cement loaded with magnetically aligned nano-magnetite

Abstract

In this study, the effect on the compressive strength of cement with the addition of 1–5 wt% nano-magnetite particles (nano-Fe3O4) is identified at the age of 7 days and 28 days of curing. In addition, an approach of aligning these nano-magnetite particles within cement using an external magnetic field is presented, where the orientation of nano-magnetite particles is aligned parallel to the compressive load. The effect of the compressive strength on cement mortar with the aligned nano-magnetite particles is compared with the non-aligned samples. Both aligned and non-aligned samples show positive effects on the compressive strengths as compared to the control samples, where the cement mortar with aligned nano-magnetite shows significant improvement on compressive strength up to 21%. This study also shows that the addition of 3 wt% nano-magnetite particles to cement mortar is the optimal amount to achieve maximum enhancement of compressive strengths.