Linnu Lu

Preparation and Properties of Alkali-Activated Ground-Granulated Blast Furnace Slag Thermal Storage Concrete

Thermal storage concrete is prepared by using alkali-activated ground-granulated blast furnace slag as cementitious material. To improve thermal conductivity, graphite aggregate is used to replace part of the coarse aggregate, and, furthermore, polypropylene fiber is added to improve the heat resistance performance of the concrete. The compressive strength of concrete specimens before and after heating (up to 450 °C) was tested, and, furthermore, scanning electron microscopy was used to investigate the structure alteration due to heating. Results showed that the partial replacement of coarse aggregate by graphite block could obviously improve the thermal conductivity of the thermal storage concrete. At the same time, the specimen with 30% graphite aggregate replacement still exhibited good mechanical properties. The mechanism of the high residual strength was investigated.

Hydration products of cement-silica fume-quartz powder mixture under different curing regimes

Composition, morphology, and structure of hydration products in hardened pastes of three kinds of blended cement (cement-silica fume, cement-quartz powder and cement-silica fume-quartz powder) hydrated under different curing regimes (standard curing, 90 °C steam curing, 200 °C and 250 °C autoclave curing) were investigated by X-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron microscope equipped with EDAX system. Results showed that the main hydration products in three kinds of hardened pastes under standard curing condition are all C-S-H gels, CH, and AFt. Under 90 °C steam curing condition, the main hydration products of cement-silica fume and cement-silica fume-quartz powder are C-S-H gels, whereas those of cement- quartz powder are C-S-H and CH. Under 200 or 250 °C autoclave curing condition, no obvious crystallized CH phase is found in hardened pastes of three kinds of blended cement, and C-S-H gels are transformed into one or more crystalline phases such as tobermorite, jennite, and xonotlite. The chemical composition and morphology of these crystalline phases depend on the composition of mixture and autoclave temperature.

Ceramsite containing iron oxide and its use as functional aggregate in microwave absorbing cement-based materials

Electromagnetic (EM) wave absorbing cement-based composite has promising applications in protecting civil and military buildings from electromagnetic interferences. A new idea of preparing EM wave absorbing cement-based composite is proposed by using ceramsite containing iron oxide as EM wave absorbing functional aggregate. The ceramsite was synthesized by adding 10 wt% Fe3O4 into clay and sintering at 1 200 °C, which shows obvious dielectric and magnetic loss properties for electromagnetic wave. The maximum reflection loss (RL) of the concrete specimens prepared with the ceramsite is between -10.2—10.7 dB (corresponding to absorption greater than 90% EM energy) in the bandwidth of 8-18 GHz. In addition, the compressive strength at 28 days age of the concrete is 46 MPa, showing the potentiality of being used as structural components in buildings.

Dehydration Characteristics of C-S-H with Ca/Si Ratio 1.0 Prepared Via Precipitation

Calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) with Ca/Si ratio 1.0 was prepared via precipitation in solution and heated at various temperatures to investigate its dehydration behavior. The dehydration, structural collapse and recrystallization characteristics of C-S-H and its microstructural change during heating process were investigated by XRD, SEM, Raman and TG-DSC techniques. C-S-H gradually lost non-evaporable water upon heating, about 50% and 80% non-evaporable water was removed below 200 and 400 °C, respectively, and the rest was removed up to about 1 000 °C. At 400 °C, dehydrated C-S-H exhibited the increasing disordering of calcium/silicon environment and the decreasing symmetrical bending vibration of Si-O-Si of Q2 silicate chains. At 650 °C non-bridging oxygen atoms (Onon) attached to silicon were almost removed, and significant structural change occurred, and at 815 °C C-S-H dehydrated to wollastonite.

Electrically conductive ceramic composites prepared with printer toner as the conductive phase

ABSTRACT Conductive ceramic composite was prepared by sintering the mixture of clay and printer toner at 1050°C and in the N2 atmosphere. The microstructure and mineral phases of the ceramic composite were characterised by SEM, EDX, TG and XRD, and its electrical conductivity and mechanical properties were also investigated. The results show that, in the sintering process, a series of physical and chemical reactions take place, and mineral phases with excellent electrical conductivity, such as metal iron, carbon and Fe–Al solid solution material, are formed. The electrical conductivity mechanism can be explained by the percolation theory. The threshold value for electrical conductive percolation is between 3.5 and 7.0 wt-%. At the content of printer toner 10 wt-%, the volume electrical resistance of the ceramic composite is as low as 8.5 Ω cm, and the composite exhibits excellent flexural strength higher than 14 MPa.

Effect of polymer on morphology and structure of calcium silicate hydrate prepared via precipitation method

The effects of polyacrylamide (PAM) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) on morphology and structure of calcium silicate hydrate with C/S 1.0–1.7 prepared via precipitation in solution were investigated by XRD, FT-IR and TEM techniques. The results show that incorporation of the polymers decreased the order degree, increased the interlayer spacing and disturbed the layered stacking of C-S-H. Interlayer spacing expansion depended on C/S ratios and type of polymer. Interlayer spacing expansion had a minimum at C/S 1.0 and a maximum at C/S 1.3 and 1.5. Interlayer spacing expansion of PAM was bigger than that of PVA with the same C/S. C-S-H added with PVA mainly exhibited foil-like and fibrillar morphology. The fibrils were of variable length from a few tens of nanometers to a few hundreds of nanometers. Fibrils or foils seemed to be longer in the presence of PVA.

Porous haydite used as waste water filter medium for lake sludge

Porous haydite used as waste filter medium was prepared by dreging lake sludge to help solve the treatment problem of sludge and realize its reclamation. Several calcination regimes were considered and their effects on the pore structure and the properties such as the strength, the density, the filtering ability and the phosphate absorption ability of the haydite were investigated. For the mixture of 60% lake sludge and 40% fly ash in this experiment, the calcination regime with a pre-calcination period at about 600 °C, a temperature keeping period at 1 200 °C and a moderate cooling rate are recommended to prepare haydite with reasonable pore structure and good performances for its usage as the waste water filter media.