Study by thermogravimetry of the evolution of ettringite phase during type II Portland cement hydration

Abstract

Thermogravimetry (TG) and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) have been used by the authors as very effective tools to study hydration steps of cements used for solidification/stabilization of tanning wastes. The present paper presents a method which was applied to separate the peaks shown by DTG curves of type II Portland cement pastes, analyzed at different times during the first 4 weeks of setting. Through a specific software a more detailed study of the evolution of the cement hydration may be done, which allows the measurement of the amount of hydrated water present in tobermorite gel as well as in ettringite, which are the main phases formed from the original components of the cement. The number of moles of water present in the ettringite phase calculated by the method is in very good agreement with the values found in the literature, validating the method to calculate the same parameter in tobermorite gel. In the latter case the water content decreases significantly during the first day of hydration, then remains at a constant value over the rest of the analyzed period.