Synthesis and characterization of an intermediate for C-S-H structure tailoring

The intermediate describes the stage prior to final product, which is the key step for structural design and functional groups tailoring at nanoscale. Inspired by this concept, a sol-gel method for the C-S-H intermediate preparation in volatile organic solution was firstly proposed in this work, and the feasibility of inducing the formation of C-S-H with targeted structure from the intermediates was also evaluated. The results show that the volatilization of TEA and ethanol initiates the formation of C-S-H intermediates, of which the structure is a hybrid of organic and inorganic silicate chains. C-S-H intermediates upon the excitation of NaOH solutions can eventually evolve into C-S-H gels. The nanostructure of evolved C-S-H can be tailored by excitation of different C-S-H intermediates. This evolved C-S-H was characterized by the stacking of tobermorite-like nanocrystals. And those evolved C-S-H particles are hollow shape, and their shell includes outer sheet-resembling C-S-H and inner dense C-S-H.