Performance of limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) made with CO2-mineralized concrete slurry waste

Abstract

Concrete slurry waste (CSW) is an under-recycled material with great potential to be substitute ordinary Portland cement (OPC) after proper treatment. In this study, dehydrated CSW (DCSW) was used to mineralize CO2 and the carbonated product was used to prepare limestone calcined clay cement (LC3). The results showed that the CaCO3 content of carbonated DCSW (CDCSW) reached ∼57.7% after mineralization for 8.5 h. During carbonation the Portlandite peak disappeared after 1.5 h, and the Mc_AFm peak disappeared after 3.5 h. The alite and belite peaks gradually diminished, with a weak diffraction remaining at 8.5 h. Replacing limestone with CDCSW led to a decrease of 14.7% in fluidity, at a plasticizer dosage of 1.3%. The compressive strength of LC3-cdcsw mortar specimens was higher than those of LC3-limestone specimens at all ages. The effective chloride diffusion coefficient of LC3-cdcsw was also promisingly small (1.08 × 10−11 m2/s). The comprehensive properties (grey correlation degree) of LC3-cdcsw were 17.82% lower than that of OPC, but 17.73% higher than that of ordinary LC3. At 28 d, the contents of monocarboaluminate for LC3-cdcsw and LC3-limestone are 11.2% and 9.5%, respectively. The fourth thermal decomposition peak of LC3 system is higher than that of OPC, and the peak intensity of LC3-cdcsw is lower than that of LC3-limestone. Our work explores the pathway of carbon sequestration in concrete slurry waste for the preparation low-carbon and durable cementitious materials.