This study demonstrates enhanced early strength in ferronickel slag-limestone systems with calcium sulfate, suggesting potential for low-carbon cement applications.
The global cement industry is undergoing active low-carbon transformation, with the raw material adaptability of limestone calcined clay cement (LC 3 ) being critical to its large-scale application. This study prepared LC 3 cement by substituting natural calcined clay with ferronickel slag and introducing calcium sulfate to regulate early hydration kinetics and influence reaction pathways, systematically study hydration characteristics, and hardening properties. Results show calcium sulfate significantly enhances the early strength of ferronickel slag-limestone powder systems. The 7-day strength of 30% and 45% cement content systems matches that of pure cement systems, respectively. This improvement arises from sulfate preferentially reacting with aluminate phases in cement and ferronickel slag to promote ettringite (AFt) formation over monosulfide aluminate (AFm). The low-density AFt with high bound water content increases hydrate volume during formation, while appropriate calcium sulfate addition exhibits no adverse effects on later-age strength development.
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Chen et al. (2025) studied this question.
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