Abstract
Portland cement contains two calcium silicates: tricalcium silicate, Ca 3SiO 5, about 50%, and dicalcium silicate, Ca 2SiO 4, about 25% of the weight of the cement. Both silicates, in their reactions with water, produce a calcium silicate hydrate and calcium hydroxide. The former is the overwhelmingly most important cementing material in concrete. The calcium silicate hydrate has a very large surface, of the order of 300 m 2/g, and the forces residing in the surface are responsible for the cementing action. It seemed desirable, therefore, to determine the surface energy of the calcium silicate hydrate. It was done by determining the heats of solution of calcium silicate hydrates of different surface areas, and by least-squares analysis. After overcoming many difficulties, the value of 450 ergs/cm 2 was obtained. This value is close to the geometric mean of the surface energies of calcium hydroxide and hydrous amorphous silica, which were previously determined by the author and his co workers, D. L. Kantro and C. H. Weise.
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