Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effects of chemical nature of polyvinyl alcohol on early hydration of Portland cement

  • Published:
Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Polyvinyl alcohols (PVAs) are used commonly in polymer-modified mortars to manipulate their properties. The present work reports the kinetics of hydration of off-white Portland cement pastes modified by PVA (PVA/cement = 0.5 mass%) as a function of the degree of hydrolysis (DH) and the degree of polymerisation (DP). To this end, the hydrolysis of PVAs in extracted cement pore water and in cement paste was analysed using titration method, the heat flow from the hydration of unmodified and PVA-modified cement pastes were monitored over the first 24 h following mixing using isothermal calorimetry, and the Ca(OH)2 (CH) contents of these cement pastes were calculated from thermogravimetric analysis. The results show that PVAs underwent near-complete hydrolysis within the first hour following the mixing of the aqueous PVA solution with cement, i.e., the original PVA was present in the pore solution as fully hydrolysed PVA chains and released acetate groups. Addition of PVA retarded the hydration of C3S to form C–S–H and CH and also the hydration reaction of C3A and gypsum to form ettringite; however, the addition of PVA had no effect on the formation of monosulphate except for the case of samples with high DP and fully hydrolysed PVA was added which resulted in the accelerated formation of monosulphate. The DH and DP of PVA have an important effect on the hydration of Portland cement. The effects of DH resulted from the variations in the amounts of fully hydrolysed PVA and the released acetate groups.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Singh NB, Rai S. Effect of polyvinyl alcohol on the hydration of cement with rice husk ash. Cem Concr Res. 2001;31:239–43.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Jenni A, Holzer L, Zurbriggen R, Herwegh M. Influence of polymers on microstructure and adhesive strength of cementitious tile adhesive mortars. Cem Concr Res. 2005;35:35–50.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Betioli AM, Gleize PJP, John VM, Pileggi RG. Effect of EVA on the fresh properties of cement paste. Cem Concr Compos. 2012;34:255–60.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Kim J-H, Robertson RE, Naaman AE. Structure and properties of poly(vinyl alcohol)-modified mortar and concrete. Cem Concr Res. 1999;29:407–15.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Mansur AAP, Santos DB, Mansur HS. A microstructural approach to adherence mechanism of poly(vinyl alcohol) modified cement systems to ceramic tiles. Cem Concr Res. 2007;37:270–82.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Georgescu M, Puri A, Coarna M, Voicu G, Voinitchi D. Thermoanalytical and infrared spectroscopy investigations of some mineral pastes containing organic polymers. Cem Concr Res. 2002;32:1269–75.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Stein HN. Influence of some additives on the hydration reactions of Portland cement I. Non-ionic organic additives. J Appl Chem. 1961;11:474–82.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Atkins KM, Edmonds RN, Majumdar AJ. The hydration of Portland and aluminous cements with added polymer dispersions. J Mater Sci. 1991;26:2372–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Nguyen DD, Devlin LP, Koshy P, Sorrell CC. Effects of acetic acid on early hydration of Portland cement. J Therm Anal Calorim. 2015. doi:10.1007/s10973-015-4942-0.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Finch CA. Analytical methods for polyvinyl alcohol. In: Finch CA, editor. Polyvinyl alcohol: properties and applications. London: Wiley; 1973. p. 561–72.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Jansen D, Goetz-Neunhoeffer F, Stabler C, Neubauer J. A remastered external standard method applied to the quantification of early OPC hydration. Cem Concr Res. 2011;41:602–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Taylor HFW. Cement chemistry. 2nd ed. London: Thomas Telford Ltd. 1997.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  13. Bullard JW, Jennings HM, Livingston RA, Nonat A, Scherer GW, Schweitzer JS, Scrivener KL, Thomas JJ. Mechanisms of cement hydration. Cem Concr Res. 2011;41:1208–23.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Tubbs RK, Wu TK. Thermal properties of polyvinyl alcohol. In: Finch CA, editor. Polyvinyl alcohol: properties and applications. London: Wiley; 1973. p. 167–82.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Moukwa M, Youn D, Hassanali M. Effects of degree of polymerization of water soluble polymers on concrete properties. Cem Concr Res. 1993;23:122–30.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial and technical support as well as the provision of materials by Bostik Australia Pty. Ltd. towards this project. The authors also grateful to Mr. Martin Weiman of Bostik Inc. for the measurements of the heat flow of hydration and to Ms. Thuy Ai Nguyen of Bostik Inc. for the thermogravimetric measurements. The authors also are grateful to Mr. Emmark Eroles of Bostik Australia Pty. Ltd. for provision of the cement and for arranging the gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analysis of the PVA samples. The authors appreciate the assistance of ATC Shanghai for the GPC analysis. The authors also acknowledge the UNSW Analytical Centre for access to X-ray fluorescence analysis. Finally, Duong Dinh Nguyen would like to thank UNSW Australia for the tuition fee waiver scholarship that supported the completion of this work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, UNSW Australia, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Duong Dinh Nguyen, Pramod Koshy & Charles Christopher Sorrell

  2. Bostik Inc., 11320 W Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Liam Peter Devlin

Authors
  1. Duong Dinh Nguyen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Liam Peter Devlin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Pramod Koshy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Charles Christopher Sorrell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Duong Dinh Nguyen.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 254 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nguyen, D.D., Devlin, L.P., Koshy, P. et al. Effects of chemical nature of polyvinyl alcohol on early hydration of Portland cement. J Therm Anal Calorim 123, 1439–1450 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-015-5076-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10973-015-5076-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation