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Atomistic thermodynamics and kinetics of dicalcium silicate dissolution

Journal Article · · Cement and Concrete Research
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2]
  1. University of California, Irvine, CA (United States); Wuhan University of Technology (China); OSTI
  2. University of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  3. Wuhan University of Technology (China)

Low-temperature cement manufacturing has garnered academic and industrial attention for its low environmental footprints. However, the sluggish hydration kinetics of the resultant cement affects their early-age strength development. This motivates fundamental studies to unravel the mechanistic picture of the dissolution process and discover science-informed pathways to accelerate hydration. Standard atomistic simulations seldomly exceed a microsecond making them impractical to study slow dissolution processes. We are using rare event sampling techniques, we provide the mechanistic picture of Ca2+ ion dissolution from a kink site on the dicalcium silicate surface. The Ca2+ ion dissolution is comprised of two sequential stages: breaking restraints from the kink sites to form a ledge adatom and detaching from the ledge/terrace adatom sites into the solution. The first and second stages feature free energy barriers of ~63 kJ/mol and ~ 29 kJ/mol respectively, making the first stage the rate-limiting step of the entire Ca2+ dissolution kinetics. Using the reactive flux method, the rate and equilibrium constants for each reaction step are calculated, which yield the Ca2+ ion activity of ~1.03 × 10-5. The diffusion calculations indicate that the surface effects lower the self-diffusion coefficient of Ca2+ ions at the solid-water interface.

Research Organization:
University of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences Division (CSGB); National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars; China Scholarship Council; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0022301
OSTI ID:
1976939
Journal Information:
Cement and Concrete Research, Journal Name: Cement and Concrete Research Journal Issue: C Vol. 157; ISSN 0008-8846
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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