Using the negative hydration of inorganic salt ions to improve the properties of Alkali-activated slag cement in plastic stage

Alkali-activated slag (AAS) cement is a low-carbon environmentally friendly cementitious material. Water glass (WG) activated slag cement has excellent physical and mechanical properties, but it is not conducive to the construction due to its rapid setting and hardening, easy loss of fluidity. Negative hydration ions can reduce the viscosity of aqueous solution. So, in the present paper, inorganic salt composed of negative hydration ions were used to adjust the fluidity and setting time of AAS paste. The results show that with the increase of NaCl, KCl, KBr and KNO3, the initial fluidity of AAS paste increases slightly, and the 30 min fluidity increases a lot, while the fluidity at 60 min is greatly affected by the amount of inorganic salt. KNO3 shows the greatest initial fluidity increase. When 0.2% Ba(NO3)(2) is added with other four inorganic salts, the fluidity retention is significantly improved, especially the fluidity of 60 min. When 5% NaCl, KCl, KBr and KNO3 respectively mixed with 0.2% Ba (NO3)(2) are added, the fluidity retention of AAS paste at 60 min are 97.4%, 92.7%, 100%, 82.5% respectively. Compared with the AAS paste without inorganic salt, when 5% NaCl, KCl, KBr and KNO3 respectively blended with 0.2% Ba(NO3)(2) are added, the initial setting time increase by 228.6%, 285.7% 307.1% and 239.3%, while the final setting time increase by 175.6%, 222.0%, 231.7% and 178.0% respectively. With the inorganic salt, the zeta-potential of the originally negative AAS cement suspension become more negative, both yield stress and plastic viscosity coefficient decease, especially the plastic viscosity coefficient greatly reduces. This may be the reason for the change of fluidity and setting time of AAS paste.

Automated summary

The study explores the adjustment of fluidity and setting time of alkali-activated slag (AAS) paste by using inorganic salts composed of negative hydration ions. The results show that this method can significantly improve the fluidity and setting time of AAS paste, thereby enhancing its construction performance.