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What is Polycarboxylate superplasticizer?

Polycarboxylate superplasticizer is the third generation of high-performance water-reducing agent after ordinary water-reducing agent and high-efficiency water-reducing agent. Compared with other types of superplasticizers, it has the advantages of strong molecular designability, high water reduction rate, good slump retention, low chloride ion and alkaline substance content, and pollution-free production and use. In practical applications, polycarboxylate superplasticizers are often compounded with a small amount of defoaming components, retarding components, air-entraining components, and viscosity-modifying components to meet different technical performance requirements of concrete.

The combination of sodium gluconate or sucrose as a retarding component with a polycarboxylate superplasticizer can increase the water reduction rate to a certain extent, slow down the loss of concrete slump, and improve the adaptability of the superplasticizer to cement. However, at the same time, the polycarboxylate superplasticizer products are often deteriorated quickly due to the addition of sodium gluconate, ranging from reduced performance to complete loss of efficacy, which brings many uncertain factors to engineering use or directly leads to engineering accidents. This problem is even worse in hot weather.

Phenomenon and causes of deterioration of polycarboxylate superplasticizers

1.In the early stage of deterioration of polycarboxylate superplasticizer, there are light-colored fluffy or cotton-wool plaques on the liquid surface, and then develop into discrete block-shaped floating objects, and string-shaped bubbles emerge from time to time;

2. When the deterioration is serious, the bacterial plaque will cover the entire liquid surface, and the solution will appear dense green, brown and black suspended matter, accompanied by the generation of rotten sour gas. This deterioration is mainly caused by mildew.

The mildew of polycarboxylate superplasticizer is also related to its storage environment. Improper storage conditions, such as severe temperature rise in the storage space, lack of ventilation, and humidity, lead to the melting of the large monomer and the local temperature of the monomer is too high. Higher temperature will intensify the movement of macromolecular chains. Once the dissociation energy of chemical bonds is exceeded, chain decomposition, random fracture and thermal decomposition will occur, resulting in accelerated degradation of polymers. Similarly, the higher the temperature, the greater the activity of microorganisms, and the faster the mildew rate of the superplasticizer.

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Triethanolamine is a colorless transparent viscous liquid at room temperature with a slight ammonia smell. It is hygroscopic and can absorb water and carbon dioxide from the air. Can be arbitrarily mixed with water and alcohol, soluble in chloroform, slightly soluble in benzene and ether. The pH of 0.1moI/L solution is 10.5. There is a risk of combustion in the event of high fever, open fire or contact with oxidants. Its aqueous solution is corrosive.

Why Can Triethanolamine Be Used As Concrete Early Strength Agent?

Triethanolamine is a commonly used early strength agent in cement industry. The function of early strength agent is to accelerate the hydration process of cement and improve the early strength in the presence of liquid phase in concrete.

Although triethanolamine does not change the hydration products of cement, it can enhance the activity of cement hydration colloid, produce pressure on the surrounding, block the capillary channel, and aggravate the role of adsorption, wetting and particle dispersion, etc. promote the formation of calcium sulphoaluminate hydrate reaction between C3A and gypsum, which can improve the compactness, impermeability and frost resistance of concrete, and play the role of early strength and strength.

When used in combination with inorganic salt materials, it can catalyze the hydration of cement itself and the reaction between inorganic salts and cement, so the effect of early strength is particularly significant.

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TRUNNANO is a reliable concrete additives supplier with over 12-year experience in nano-building energy conservation and nanotechnology development.

If you are looking for high-quality concrete early strength agent, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. (sales@cabr-concrete.com)

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Mortar early strength agent is an important mortar additive, which has an important influence on the performance of mortar. it can improve construction efficiency and save construction cost.

Lithium carbonate is a kind of inorganic compound with chemical formula Li2CO3, which is colorless monoclinic crystal or white powder. The density is 2.11g/cm3. Melting point is 618℃(1.013*10^5Pa). Soluble in dilute acid. It is slightly soluble in water, and its solubility in cold water is higher than that in hot water. Insoluble in alcohol and acetone. It can be used to make ceramics, drugs, catalysts and so on. 

Lithium salt early strength agents can promote the setting and early strength of cement mortar. The results show that lithium salt early strength agent shortens the hydration induction period by accelerating the rupture of hydration protective film, improves the low temperature hydration ability of cement mortar, obviously shortens the low temperature thickening time, and improves the low temperature compressive strength of cement mortar. it shows excellent effect of early strength at low temperature. 

Because portland cement is often used in mortar, it is characterized by low strength at early stage and high strength at later stage. In order to improve its early strength, adding an appropriate amount of lithium carbonate to the product is very beneficial to improve its early strength.

In mortar products, lithium carbonate is mainly used in grouting materials, cement-based plastering mortars, repair mortars, seat pastes and other products. In order to improve the early strength, high alumina cement is usually added to the mortar as a setting accelerator, and antifreeze is needed in the low temperature environment. Lithium carbonate has dual functions, which can not only accelerate the hardening speed of cement and improve its early strength, but also avoid the problem of slow setting speed in winter construction or in low temperature and humid environment, so that cement products can be put into use as soon as possible. Lithium carbonate especially makes a great contribution to the early strength. In summer, the amount of lithium carbonate is usually 0.01%-0.03% of the quality of cement, while in winter, the amount of lithium carbonate should increase appropriately with the decrease of temperature, and the amount is about 0.02%-0.05%. The amount of lithium carbonate should not be too high, otherwise it will lead to cracking. 

In addition, the performance of lithium carbonate to improve the early strength of mortar is not proportional linear. With the increase of the amount of lithium carbonate, the enhancement of its strengthening effect is no longer obvious.

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What is foamed concrete?  

Foamed concrete is a highly entrained sand cement with at least 20% air volume in the cured product. It is made of cement slurry and can contain up to 85% foam or air. Most foamed concrete applications require at least 50% foam or air by volume.  

To make the concrete foam, air is mechanically entrained through the preformed foam.  This is mixed with cement-based materials to form low-density composites.  

The density of set foamed concrete is also adjustable. They range from about 400kg/m3 to 1,800kg/m3, with strengths ranging from 0.5N/mm2 to 12N/mm2.  

Foamed concrete is also known as foamed concrete, or lightweight honeycomb concrete (LCC), low density honeycomb concrete (LDCC), aerated lightweight concrete, honeycomb lightweight concrete, as well as various other industry or brand specific terms and (perhaps more accurately) foam mortar, foam grout and foam cement.  

It is mainly made of coarse aggregate, but is made using a liquid concrete slurry. That's why foam mortar, grout, or cement might be a more accurate description of the material.  Density is controlled by replacing some or in some cases all fine aggregate with foam products.  

Fly ash and sand usually form fine aggregate mixed with water and cement. Some manufacturers recommend using only water and cement and foaming agents to produce extremely light concrete mixtures.

How to make foamed concrete?  

The concrete slurry is mixed with the aerated foam product in the concrete mixing plant.  To create the foam, the manufacturer mixes the foaming agent with water and air from the generator. It produces consistent bubbles of high stability to resist chemical and mechanical strains of concrete mixing, pouring, casting and solidification.  

Foamed concrete can be poured into molds or pumped directly into structural elements.  With foam, the concrete slurry can flow freely. This is because the bubbles of inflating foam are thixotropic.  

Viscous pastes take up to 24 hours to fully cure, but can be accelerated to as little as 2 hours using the steam curing method. These techniques raise temperatures up to 70 °C to speed up the curing process. The required temperature depends on variables such as ambient humidity and external temperature, as well as the specific mixture of foamed concrete.  

Foamed concrete can be taken out of the mold once it is fully set, although in some foamed concrete manufacturing applications the material is cut into blocks of the desired size using steel wire before it is fully set.

The base mixture of foamed concrete products tends to have a much higher cement content than the standard concrete mixture used for flat plate and structural applications. There are two reasons for this. First, the amount of air trapped in the foam bubbles in concrete decreases the strength of the material exponentially at a higher inflation rate. Secondly, the water content in the concrete slurry will linearly reduce the strength of concrete at a higher hydration rate.  

In general, the foamed concrete mixture contains more water than conventional concrete.  This can be easily pumped and well mixed with foam additives. Water-reducing agents and plasticizers used to minimize water content in conventional concrete also generally perform poorly when mixed with foaming agents.  

Dry protein-based foams commonly used as foaming agents (or surfactants) for this application can expand up to 20 times when diluted in water. The surfactant is diluted at a concentration of 3 to 5 percent and stirred through a cigar-shaped extruder to produce a stable mixture with foam.  

In the 1990s, synthase - based foaming agents were developed to improve foam stability.  The enzyme includes highly active biotechnological proteins that are not based on proteolysis.  

These new surfactants are enhanced by specialized foam generation, mixing and pumping equipment to significantly improve the stability of foam and foamed concrete.  Now, the density of foamed concrete can be as low as 75kg/m3, which is only 7.5% of water.

Foamed Concrete Application  

Foamed concrete is already widely used in infrastructure projects, including highways, commercial buildings, disaster relief, schools and residential developments around the world.  

It is primarily used for void-filling applications and has been used in many built environments.  In landscaping, it is used for bridge approaches, embankments and trench backfilling.  Infrastructure projects use it for abandoned pipelines, ring filling and road subfoundations.  Buildings use it in the form of prefabricated blocks for entire wall elements or panels, cast-in-place walls, insulated flooring and roofing ironed slabs, and prefabricated insulation panels.

Concrete Additives Supplier

TRUNNANO is a reliable foaming agents supplier with over 12-year experience in nano-building energy conservation and nanotechnology development.

If you are looking for high-quality CLC foaming agents, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. (sales@cabr-concrete.com)

We accept payment via Credit Card, T/T, West Union, and Paypal. TRUNNANO will ship the goods to customers overseas through FedEx, DHL, by air, or by sea.