Hydrothermal durability of Ca-polyester complexed polymer concrete

✍ Scribed by T. Sugama; L.E. Kukacka; W. Horn

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 645 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-8846
• DOI: 10.1016/0008-8846(81)90115-0

✦ Synopsis

Polymer concretes (PC) consisting of an unsaturated polyester (UP)-styrene (St) copolymer binder and a silica-type aggregate possess very poor hydrothermal durability because of the hydrolytic instability of the carboxyllc ester existing in the main chains of the UP. It was found that the addition of beta dlcalcium silicate (8-C2S) as a filler in the PC helps to prevent the severe physical degradation of UP-PC which occurs when the hydrolysis reactions take place. This is due to the formation of ionic bonding between the strongly nucleophilic reagent Ca 2+ ions released from B-C2S in an aqueous medium and the carboxylate anions (-CO0-) of esters. UP-PC specimens containing Ca 2+ ion complexed bridge structures of ionic bonding in their main chains display significant improvement in hydrothermal stability at elevated temperatures.

In addition, the interaction mechanism of UP with 8-C2S occurring during exposure in an autoclave is also discussed from the results of infrared absorption analysis.