Influence of graphene oxide on the mechanical properties, fracture toughness, and microhardness of recycled concrete

Jianlin Luo, Shuaichao Chen, Qiuyi Li, Chao Liu, Song Gao, Jigang Zhang, Junbing Guo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

50 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

There is a constant drive to improve the properties of recycled concrete owing to its inferior strength and fracture toughness compared to normal concrete and recent progress in graphene oxide (GO) nanomaterials impelling nanosized reinforcements to recycled concrete. Here, GO-modified natural sand (NS)- or recycled sand (RS)-based mortars (GONMs or GORMs) with six GO fractions (wGOs) were fabricated to explore their 28 d mechanical strengths (f28t, f28c), fracture toughness (KIC, δc), and microhardness (Hv), as well as their crystal phases (using X-ray powder diffraction) and microstructures (using scanning electronic microscopy). Results reveal, greater enhancements in mechanical strengths (4.50% and 10.61% in f28t, 4.76% and 13.87% in f28c), fracture toughness (16.49% and 38.17% in KIC, 160.14% and 286.59% in δc), and microhardness (21.02% and 52.70% in Hv) of GORM with just 0.025 wt‰ and 0.05 wt‰ GO, respectively, with respect to the control are achieved when comparing with those of GONM with the same wGO. More zigzag surfaces, more irregular weak interface slips, and the relatively lower strengths of RS bring the superiority of the template and reshaping effects of GO into full play in GORM rather than in GONM. These outcomes benefit a wide range of applications of recycled concrete products.
Original languageEnglish
Article number325
Number of pages14
JournalNanomaterials
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Keywords

  • aggregates (building materials)
  • graphene
  • mechanical properties
  • microhardness
  • microstructure

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