Cellulose nanomaterials as additives for cementitious materials

Abstract

Cementitious materials cover a very broad area of industries/products (buildings, streets and highways, water and waste management, and many others; see Fig. 20.1). Annual production of cements is on the order of 4 billion metric tons [2]. In general these industries want stronger, cheaper, more durable concrete, with faster setting times, faster rates of strength gain, and there is growing interest in advancing sustainability [3]. To achieve these improvements in properties, there are a wide range of additives such as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) [4], chemical admixtures [4], and fiber reinforcement [5,6]. Natural fibers have been used as a reinforcement phase in cementitious composites since ancient times and are seeing increased use in cementitious products such as nonstructural building materials (e.g., fiber cement boards for siding, cladding, and soffit panels). Though having lower reinforcement effectiveness than metallic reinforcements, natural fibers are increasingly being used as they are renewable, economical, and abundant compared with other commonly used fibers; additionally functionalized natural fibers are seeing utility in emerging applications as internal curing agents [7] and for control of shrinkage cracking [8].

Citation

Fu, Tengfei; Moon, Robert J.; Zavatierri, Pablo; Youngblood, Jeffrey; Weiss, William Jason. 2017. Cellulose nanomaterials as additives for cementitious materials. In: Cellulose-Reinforced Nanofibre Composites: 455-482. Chapter 20.