The effect of polycations on early cement paste

International audience; This paper studies the possibility for improving the ductility of cement based materials by means of oligocationic additives. Actually, the setting of cement is due to ionic correlation forces between highly negatively charged C-S-H nanoparticles throughout a calcium rich solution. The main drawback of this strong attraction is its very short range that results in low elastic deformation of hydrated cementitious materials. A way to enlarge the attraction range between C-S-H particles would be to add cationic oligomers that would compete with calcium ions modifying the ionic correlation forces via a bridging mechanism of longer range, which could lead to a more ductil…