Influence of Sn on the hydration of tricalcium aluminate, Ca3Al2O6

Abstract

Tricalcium aluminate (Ca3Al2O6, C3A) containing 0–5% of Sn was synthesized by solid-state method, and the products were characterized by XRD technique. Differential thermo-analytical technique (DTA) along with X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were applied to study the hydration behaviour of different C3A samples with and without the presence of gypsum. Results indicate that C3A can accommodate small amount of Sn in its structure and remaining amount forms SnO2. Hydration studies of the synthesized C3A shows that the additions of 0.5 and 1% Sn increase and 2% Sn decrease the reactivity of C3A at the initial period (<3 h) of hydration. Increasing additions of Sn also increase the amounts of amorphous phases and hexagonal calcium aluminate hydrates in the cement pastes. The stabilities of these hydration products also increase with increasing content of Sn in C3A at the experimental conditions. The presence of Sn significantly changes the hydration of C3A and gypsum solid mixture at the initial period of hydration by enhancing the formation of more amounts of AFt and AFm phases. However, at the later stage of hydration (on or after 3 days), the hydration products in C3A and gypsum pastes with and without the presence of Sn are almost similar.