Influence of partial replacement TiO2 nanoparticles on the compressive and flexural strength of ordinary cement mortar

Abstract

In this paper, the compressive and flexural strength together with microstructural analysis of mortar by partial replacement of cement with Nano-TiO2 particles has been studied. TiO2 nanoparticles with average diameter of 15 nm were used with four different contents of 0.25%, 0.75%, 1.25% and 1.75% by weight. the compressive and flexural strength tests were done after curing at the ages of 7-days as early age, 28-days as standard age. The Nano-cement mortar was prepared using cement-sand ratio of 1:3 by weight with water-binder ratio (w/b ratio) as 0.5. The results showed that the compressive and flexural strength of the cement mortars with TiO2 were higher than pure cement mortar. The ultimate strength of Nano-cement mortar was gained at 0.75% of cement replacement. The enhancement in compressive and flexural strength were 19.33 % and 15.1% respectively at 28 days. SEM study about the micro structure of cement mortar containing nanoparticles and ordinary cement mortar showed that TiO2 nanoparticles fills the pores completely and reduces the large crystals of Ca(OH)2 and the hydrate products are denser and compact.