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Coordination environment of Si in calcium silicate hydrates, silicate minerals, and blast furnace slags: A XANES database

Journal Article · · Cement and Concrete Research
;  [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
  2. Institute for Technical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76021 Karlsruhe (Germany)

Understanding the silicate polymerization of calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel and its crystalline polymorphs is important in cement science. NMR can determine Si environments, but the measurement can be time-consuming and provides no spatial information. X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy is a fast tool for probing Si coordination, possibly with spatial information. However, there lacks an understanding of Si K-edge XANES spectra of cement-related silicate phases. Here, a Si K-edge XANES spectral database of nanocrystalline C-S-H, C-S-H minerals, blast-furnace slags, and metakaolin is provided. Si K-edge of C-S-H minerals shifts to higher energies with higher polymerized Si and lower CaSi connectivity in the Si second nearest neighbor shell. Si K-edge energy shows weak correlations with Ca/Si ratio, average SiO bond length, and SiO{sub 4} distortion due to the structural complexity of silicates. The substitution of Al for Si shifts the Si K-edge of tobermorite and slags to higher energies.

OSTI ID:
23206336
Journal Information:
Cement and Concrete Research, Journal Name: Cement and Concrete Research Vol. 143; ISSN 0008-8846; ISSN CCNRAI
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English