Hydration Characteristics and Hydration Products of Tricalcium Silicate Doped with Superplasticizer and Silica Fume

By using XRD, isothermal microcalorimetry, ESEM, EDS, NMR, the effects silica fume and polycarboxylate superplasticizer (PC) on the hydration behavior of tricalcium silicate (C3S) paste were researched. The results show that: PC suppresses the hydration of C3S while silica fume promotes the hydration of C3S by consumption of generated Ca(OH)(2). Both PC and silica fume change the morphology of hydration products C-S-H gel from needle-bar-like to reunion-like, along with the polymerization state of silicon-oxygen tetrahedron varied greatly. Especially silica fume significantly affects Q(1), Q(2) percentage of silicon-oxygen tetrahedron.