6533b827fe1ef96bd128761d

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Study of nucleation-growth processes of ettringite, alone or in a tricalcium aluminate/calcium sulfate system

subject

description

Ettringite Ca6Al2(SO4)3(OH)12.26H2O is one of the main hydration products of cements but despite the importance of this compound for cement chemistry, laws governing its precipitation processes have been poorly studied. This PhD thesis was entirely focused on the study of ettringite and on its nucleation-growth mechanisms.Ettringite precipitation was first studied alone from supersaturated ionic solutions. Experiments were designed in order to study separately processes of nucleation and growth. The Classical Theory of Nucleation was applied and allowed the determination of the interfacial energy of ettringite. A global description of ettringite precipitation process has been suggested. It appeared that ettringite is an easily formed hydrate, because of its low interfacial energy, presenting a high precipitation rate as soon as its constitituve ions are present in solution. After primary homogeneous nucleation, when the quantity of already formed crystals is still low, precipitation rate of ettringite mainly depends on the supersaturation degree of the solution. When the crystalline surface gets significative, it provokes an increase of precipitation rate and processes of secondary nucleation and growth have been identified.Then, formation of ettringite during the hydration of a C3A/calcium sulfate system, chosen to get closer to chemical reactions happening in a Portland cement, was studied. Conducted experiments helped prove that a growing concentration of sulfate ions (and of calcium ions) in solution was speeding up ettringite precipitation. Obtained results about the ease and speed of ettringite precipitation alone from supersaturated solutions seem also valid in the case of ettringite formation during the hydration of a C3A/CaSO4 system.