Hydration Processes in Tricalcium Silicate: Application of the Boundary Nucleation Model to Quasielastic Neutron Scattering Data

Tricalcium silicate hydration is followed using quasielastic neutron scattering (QENS) and the kinetics of product nucleation and growth modeled using a boundary nucleation (BN) model. The BN model, previously applied once to calorimetry data of hydrating tricalcium silicate, is applied to QENS data that includes components that do not follow the evolution of heat (measured using calorimetry). Variations in modeling conditions are explored, including combination with a second model describing later, diffusion-limited, behavior. The BN model produces comparable quality fits to those from the commonly used Avrami-derived model and is found to support the theory that nucleation and growth begins at the time of mixing and proceeds with a single kinetic process.