Proton NMR relaxation as a probe for setting cement pastes

We report a 20-MHz proton nuclear magnetic resonance T, relaxation study of cement paste hydration in the early stages of setting, using different centimeter-sized samples of cements of various origins and different water-to-cement ratios. In every sample, during the first few minutes of hydration, it is found that inverse Laplace processing of inversion-recovery measurements systematically exhibits at least two T-1 values: a long one, around 100 ins, whose value correlates well with water content and which may be attributed to bulk water surrounding cement grains; and a short one, around 2 ins, which is quite insensitive to water-to-cement ratio and which may be attributed to water embedded in floculated cement grains before setting occurs. The time evolution of the longest T, value for several hours is also shown to exhibit a characteristic five-stage behavior that is well con-elated with known stages of the hydration process: initial reaction, induction period, acceleration period, deceleration period and slow hydration reaction. These results are compared with calorimetric measurements and electrical conductivity literature. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.