The need to produce sustainable cements has driven research towards nanotechnology. The main cement hydration product, calcium silicate hydrate, is nanosized; hence, the addition of nanoparticles to blended Portland cement formulations can remarkably modify mechanical strength, porosity and durability. The present paper discusses the material aspects of two different nanoparticles, nanosilica and montmorillonite nanoclay, the complications that arise from their addition to cement pastes and ways to mitigate these limitations. It is deduced that nanosilica solids in blended cement pastes should be limited to 0.5, whereas nanoclay solids to almost 1 mass- binder. Competitive reactivity of nanoparticles with other constituents is expected, and the possible pozzolanic activity is critically addressed. Notwithstanding progress made, there are significant potentials related to inorganic nanoclays.

This is the first time an analytical protocol is proposed to investigate and live-monitor the behaviour of montmorillonite nanoparticles, of different natures, in alkaline cement environment (pH of 12-13). In this study inorganic and organomodified montmorillonite nanoparticles were characterised via TEM, XRD, SEM-EDX and TGA. The inorganic montmorillonite used consisted of a purified montmorillonite commercially available as HPS-clay, and an organomodified montmorillonite, namely XDB-organoclay, consisted of purified montmorillonite modified with Noramonium MB2HT salt. Both montmorillonite nanoparticles were tailored to increase their compatibility with the hydrating cement environment. This gave rise to three different slurries: (i) reference-slurry, (ii) inorganic-slurry, and (iii) organic-slurry. The slurries were characterised and investigated through UV/vis, to measure suspension quality in terms of physical stability and rheological properties, and by AFM and FTIR to determine the chemical stability. The results indicated that the organic-slurry can offer a good stability, preventing aggregation of the clay particles at the targeted pH (13). The inorganic-slurry showed a reduction in surface charge and increased double layer repulsion. At pH 13 it was possible to obtain dispersion of the reference slurry although it underwent gelation and became viscous. The research findings informed that the inorganic slurry favours miscibility of the montmorillonite nanoparticles with cement particles and offers additional nucleation sites for CSH. Therefore it can be considered an alternative to organomodified montmorillonite as an addition in cement based materials

The transformation of conventional binder and grout into high-performance nanocarbon binder and grout was evaluated in this investigation. The high-performance nanocarbon grout consisted of grey cement, white cement, lime, gypsum, sand, water, and graphite nanoplatelet (GNP), while conventional mortar is prepared with water, binder, and fine aggregate. The investigated properties included unconfined compressive strength (UCS), bending strength, ultrasound pulse analysis (UPA), and Schmidt surface hardness. The results indicated that the inclusion of nanocarbon led to an increase in the initial and long-term strengths by 14% and 23%, respectively. The same trend was observed in the nanocarbon binder mortars with white cement, lime, and gypsum in terms of the UCS, bending strength, UPA, and Schmidt surface hardness. The incorporation of nanocarbon into ordinary cement produced a high-performance nanocarbon binder mortar, which increased the strength to 42.5 N, in comparison to the 32.5 N of the ordinary cement, at 28 days.

Cementitious materials have a complex chemistry and naturally form nanostructures in the hydration process, a network of calcium silicate hydrates. It is considered that nanoparticles such as nanosilica could act as a pozzolanic material as well as a seeding agent for nucleation and acceleration of the formation of the calcium silicate hydrate network. This work evaluates the effect of nanosilica on the calcium silicate hydrate network and microstructure of hardened ternary, quaternary and quinary system Portland cement based pastes. The quinary system, containing Portland cement, limestone, fly ash, microsilica and nanosilica, and ternary combinations (Portland cement, limestone and fly ash) showed mean calcium/silicon atomic ratios of the calcium silicate hydrate gel in the 28 d old hardened paste of 1·2 and 2·3 respectively. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results show the presence of the bridging silicate tetrahedra (Q²) characteristic of a peak at around 980 cm⁻¹ and a shoulder at around 1060 cm⁻¹ in the calcium silicate hydrate gel network of the ternary, quaternary and quinary combinations; these bands are thus more pronounced for the nanosilica-enhanced formulations. The sample obtained in the presence of microsilica and nanosilica (quinary combination) showed evidence of a more intricate calcium silicate hydrate gel network (bridging tetrahedra) characteristic of a honeycomb-like structure opposed to the ternary combination (control sample).