Strength Development and Products Evolution of β-C2S and γ-C2S Induced by Accelerated Carbonation Curing

Low calcium β-C2S and γ-C2S minerals with low hydration activity was activated by accelerated carbonation curing to be used as new binding materials.Synthetic β-C2S and γ-C2S were synthetized and compacted to prepare cube samples and then subjected to CO2 chamber for accelerated carbonation curing.The CO2 uptake,mechanical strength,and microstructure changes of β-C2S and γ-C2S were analyzed by TG,XRD,MAS-NMR,and MIP.The experimental results indicate the CO2 uptake of γ-C2S is much higher than that of β-C2S,but the compressive strength of γ-C2S samples is lower than that of β-C2S.Calcium carbonate and other carbonation products stack in the pore structure and the porosity is reduced from about 42% to 30.1% and 22.0% for β-C2S and γ-C2S samples after 2 h carbonation curing,respectively.The difference in compressive strength development is caused by the different properties of carbonation products.Except for calcium carbonate,there also exists obvious difference in properties of amorphous phases:γ-C2S formed silica gel in the whole carbonation progress;however,β-C2S can react to produce silica gel and C-S-H gel with high Van der Waals forces,and C-S-H gel will continue to react with CO2 to form calcium carbonate and silica gel in later carbonation reaction;In addition the microhardness of carbonated β-C2S was more higher than that of γ-C2S.