Mechanical and damping properties of CNT-reinforced cementitious composites

Abstract The mechanical and damping properties of CNT-reinforced cementitious composite structures were experimentally examined. In the experiments, an aromatic modified polyethylene glycol ether named TNWDIS and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were used to disperse CNTs, which were ultra-effective and compatible with cement hydrates. The growth of cement hydrates on the CNT surface was observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and identified by Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (EDS). X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD) analysis suggested that the mechanism by which the CNTs and cement hydrates were combined was a physical process. The compressive and flexural strengths of CNT/cement composites were improved by 17.3 and 16.3%, respectively, through the addition of 0.1 wt.% CNTs dispersed by PVP, while the addition of CNTs dispersed by TNWDIS led to a very limited improvement in strength. In addition, the loss factor of CNT/cement matrix was measured, and 0.1 wt.% CNTs dispersed by TNWDIS improved the loss factor by 25.9%, which is nearly twice greater than the improvement caused by 0.1 wt.% CNTs dispersed by PVP.