Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Effect of Adding Silicon Carbide and Titanium Carbide Nanoparticles on the Performance of the Cement Pastes

Abstract

Aamir Mahawish *,Sarmed Imad Ibrahim ,Ali Hussein Jawad ,Ferhad Mohamed Othman

The nanoparticle is used into cement pastes to improve its engineering properties. In this paper, silicon carbide (SiC) and titanium carbide (TiC) nanoparticles with a particle size (20 nm) were added at different percentages 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% and 6%) to cement pastes. The cement pastes were tested for mechanical and physical properties at different curing ages (7, 14, 21, and 28 days). The results of mechanical and physical tests showed a significant improvement with all mixtures of nanoparticles, and the maximum values of the mechanical and physical tests were associated with the cement paste samples with 5% TiC at curing time 28 days. SEM results showed the control samples of cement paste had needle shapes to structure Ca(OH)2 with the of large pores. However, adding of nanoparticles resulted in absence of needle shape structures, pore spaces and produced a homogeneous structure of compounds (C-SH).