Enhancement in behavioral properties of cement mortar cubes admixed with reduced graphene oxide

In this paper, we detail the enhancement in most of the prominent characteristics of cement mortar cubes fabricated by admixing with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as an additive to a standard mix design. After curing the fabricated cement mortar cubes for 28 days, 0.1% rGO impregnated cement mortar cubes (0.1% rGOCMC) display higher compressive strength of 36.23 MPa in contrast to all other specimens (0.05%, 0.15% and 0.2%). Besides compressive strength, tests for water absorption, ultrasonic pulse velocity, carbonation, fire resistance, and acid attack further validate the superior performance of 0.1% rGOCMC over control mortar cubes. From all the obtained results, it is clear that 0.1% rGOCMC has the best characteristics of cement mortar to protect embedded metal reinforcement from corrosion and can be used as an effective structural material in the building industry.