Wettability of cement and pozzolan particle surfaces

This study investigated the concept of wettability, which defines the interaction between a liquid and a solid, on the basis of sustainability for reference cements, pozzolans and blended cements. Chemical, physical, mineralogical and electromagnetic analyses of samples were conducted. The free surface energy components were defined with the van Oss, Chaudhury and Good equation and the contact angles of the samples were determined using the thin layer wicking method. The results obtained show that, while particle charges were effective at the beginning of hydration, surface energy components were effective throughout the hydration process and wettability depended on the charge and energy components of particle surfaces as well as physicochemical features.