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Investigating the properties and microstructure of high-performance cement composites with nano-silica, silica fume, and ultra-fine TiO2

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Abstract

Nanomaterials find widespread use in industries, including construction, due to their superior mechanical, thermal, and electrical characteristics. Addressing cement composites’ weaknesses like low tensile strength and brittleness, researchers increasingly use supplementary cementitious materials and nanoparticles. This study investigates the effects of varied proportions of silica fume (SF), nano-silica (nS), and ultra-fine TiO2 (UFTiO2) in both mixed and separate phases on cement composites. SF represents the pozzolanic family, while nS and UFTiO2 stand for nanomaterials. Tests measured compressive, flexural, and impact strengths, abrasion resistance, and electrical resistivity. Scanning electron microscopy examined microstructure-property relationships. SF and nS enhanced the mechanical strength of the composites, with SF proving superior in durability. The addition of UFTiO2 increased the compressive strength slightly for SF samples (4–7%) and more for nS samples (8–14%). SF samples with UFTiO2 showed 16–25% more flexural strength than nS samples with UFTiO2. The addition of UFTiO2 also raised the electrical resistance by 24–30% for nS samples and 14.5–31.5% for SF samples after 14 days. UFTiO2 affected the abrasion resistance significantly, exhibiting diverse roles in nS and SF specimens. The first crack strength and failure strength for the mixtures containing SF were in the range of 33–36 blows and 39–43 blows, respectively. Meanwhile, for the mixtures containing nS, this impact range was reduced to a maximum of 57%. The impact test results followed the two-parameter Weibull distribution well, with an R2 value exceeding 0.891 across concrete mixes. The study demonstrates the potential of nanomaterials to improve the performance of cement composites for various applications.

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Data availability

The data set analyzed during the current study is available and can be provided upon request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

    Ashkan Saradar & Komeil Rahmati

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Pardis Branch, Islamic Azad University, Pardis, Iran

    Yousof Rezakhani

  3. Kadous Institute of Higher Education, Rasht, Iran

    Farzad Johari Majd

  4. Department of Civil Engineering, Allameh Mohaddes Nouri University, Nour, Mazandaran, Iran

    Mohammad Mohtasham Moein

  5. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

    Moses Karakouzian

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  1. Ashkan Saradar
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  2. Yousof Rezakhani
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  3. Komeil Rahmati
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  4. Farzad Johari Majd
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  5. Mohammad Mohtasham Moein
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Contributions

Ashkan Saradar contributed to methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, visualization, and supervision. Yousof Rezakhani was involved in validation, investigation, and resources and provided software. Komeil Rahmati contributed to writing—review and editing, and provided software. Farzad Johari Majd provided software and was involved in validation and formal analysis. Mohammad Mohtasham Moein contributed to conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, resources, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, and visualization and provided software. Moses Karakouzian was involved in writing—review and editing, and visualization.

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Correspondence to Komeil Rahmati.

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Saradar, A., Rezakhani, Y., Rahmati, K. et al. Investigating the properties and microstructure of high-performance cement composites with nano-silica, silica fume, and ultra-fine TiO2. Innov. Infrastruct. Solut. 9, 84 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-024-01407-7

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