Nanostructural Characterization 3D of Phases and Interfaces of Portland Cement Mortar

This paper proposes to go further in the characterization and micro nanostructural surfaces and interfaces of Portland cement mortars in a new way and the use of AFM (atomic force microscopy). The nanostructure of CSH (calcium silicate hydrate) has been the subject of much research, but it is still not clearly understood, some suggested models point ranging from colloidal "layers-sheets". The AFM was used in this work in an unprecedented way for cementitious materials, in the case of this study, Portland cement mortars. There are no bibliographic reports of successful attempts to characterize these materials using such important technique to nanostructures. The preparation of the samples showed a positive surprise because as we had no previous parameters, we chose the simplest possible preparation that consisted of embedding a fragment of fractured mortar in bakelite and did the surface polishing. The topographic characterization is important because it shows the classical morphology of portlandite and calcite in the samples at the nanometer scale. These topographical micrographs and three-dimensional topographic profiles give us an exact picture of the morphology of cementitious materials in the interface ceramic block/mortar, interface roughcast mortar/mortar coating and top view of the mortar, being a powerful and effective characterization technique for micro and nanostructural.