Hydration characteristics and compressive strength of hardened cement pastes containing nano-metakaolin

In this study the effect of inclusion of nano-metakaolin (NMK) to ordinary Portland cement (OPC) on the hydration characteristics and microstructure of hardened OPC–NMK pastes was studied. The OPC–NMK blends were prepared by the partial substitution of OPC by NMK (4, 6, 10 and 15 weight %). The fresh pastes were made using an initial water/solid (W/S) ratio of 0.27 by weight and then hydrated for various time intervals. At the end of each hydration time, the hardened blended cement pastes were tested for compressive strength, free lime content, combined water content, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The compressive strength results revealed that the inclusion of nano-metakaolin into OPC improved the mechanical properties of NMK–OPC pastes during almost all ages of hydration, especially with the paste containing 10 wt% NMK. The compressive strength values obtained for OPC paste blended with 4% silica fume (SF) and 6% NMK are comparable to those of the neat OPC paste. The DSC thermograms and XRD diffractograms obtained for some selected hardened pastes indicated the formation of amorphous calcium silicate hydrates, calcium sulfoaluminate hydrates, calcium aluminate hydrate and calcium hydroxide. SEM micrographs showed the formation of a dense microstructure for the hardened OPC–NMK and OPC–NMK-SF pastes as compared to the neat OPC paste after 90 days of hydration