THE INFLUENCE OF CELLULOSE NANOCRYSTALS ON PERFORMANCE AND TRANSPORT PROPERTIES OF CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS AND GYPSUM

Concrete is in everyday life such as parking lots, buildings, bridges, and more. To keep concrete and its constituents together, binders such as cement are used. Cement’s production process is responsible for 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions as of 2018. With global warming being a severe global issue, the challenge of reducing cement carbon dioxide emissions can be greatly beneficial with even slight improvements. Various solutions to this challenge have developed over the years in the form of processing efficiency, material substitution, or material additives. Of the additives for cement and concrete that have been ventured, nanomaterials have had a strong development in recent years. Specifically, cellulose nanomaterials in the form of nanocrystals, nanofibrils, and more have demonstrated great improvement in cement’s performance resulting in a reduction in cement produced and reduction in emissions. This study expands on the knowledge of cellulose nanocrystals as an additive for cement using the formation factor methodology. Formation factor is a resistivity ratio of the specimen and pore solution that can be used in correlation to the diffusion of chloride ions through the use of the Nernst-Einstein equation. This study also investigates the effect that cellulose nanomaterials have on the mechanical properties and thermogravimetric analysis of gypsum, a material commonly used in cement production that delays the hardening of cement.