Is freeze-drying an alternative to solvent exchange for the hydration stop of cementitious suspensions?

In order to understand the rheological properties of cementitious suspensions at early stages, among other phases, the formation of ettringite and its time-dependent influence, whether by amount or morphology, has to be examined in detail using a suitable method to stop the hydration process. It is state-of-the-art to exchange water with isopropanol, however, the water initially remains in the system possibly leading to reduced time resolution. Our group raised the question if freeze-drying or the combination of the water-isopropanol exchange with subsequent freeze-drying might be a suitable technique to achieve an almost complete hydration stop at any time. Recently, it was shown under which circumstances low-pressure characterization techniques can be employed without destroying the samples due to loss of crystal bound water. Here, by implementing these recent results, we show under which circumstances freeze-drying indeed can be employed as fast hydration stop method.

Automated summary

To understand the rheological properties of cementitious suspensions at early stages, it is important to study the formation of ettringite and its time-dependent influence. This study investigates the use of freeze-drying as a method to completely stop the hydration process, and demonstrates its feasibility based on recent research results.