Non-adsorbing polymers and yield stress of cement paste: Effect of depletion forces

Abstract

In this work, we study the effect of non-adsorbing polymers with molar masses varying over several decades in both dilute and semi-dilute regimes on the yield stress of cement and calcite pastes. In both suspensions, we measure an increase of yield stress, the magnitude of which mainly depends on the polymer concentration regimes. From interparticle force calculations, we show that non-adsorbing polymers are at the origin of interparticle attractive depletion forces. In the absence of superplasticizers, Van der Waals attractive forces are the dominant flocculating mechanism in the system and depletion forces resulting from non-adsorbing polymers are negligible. The repulsive forces that result from superplasticizers' steric contribution increase the average interparticle distance and therefore decrease the magnitude of the attractive van der Waals forces. In this latter system, attractive depletion forces induced by non-adsorbing polymers become important and greatly contribute to the flocculation mechanism.