A new publication titled “Tracking Spatiotemporal Evolution of Cementitious Carbonation via Raman Imaging” was published in the Journal of Raman Spectroscopy in December 2022.
Carbonation of cement systems is a growing area of interest as it offers a permanent solution to store CO2. Various analytical techniques like measuring pH changes and calcite content over time have been used to study this dynamic process. However, these methods rely on bulk measurements, which may miss the fine microstructural changes that occur during carbonation. In this work, we report the use of Raman imaging to follow the carbonation process in cement pastes at a micron-scale resolution. Results show that 40% of the sample surface was covered with calcite after 2 weeks of exposure and portlandite content declined from 15% to 5%. These findings suggest that other hydration products such as calcium silicate hydrate and ettringite also undergo carbonation simultaneously along with calcium hydroxide, opening up the possibility of using Raman imaging to understand the nature and kinetics of complex dynamic phenomena.
This is the first article from our group’s M.S. graduate Sonali Srivastava. Congratulations Sonali!
This article can be accessed here.