New frontiers in sustainable cements: Improving the performance of carbonated reactive MgO concrete via microbial carbonation process

Nguyen Tien Dung, Tung Hoang, En Hua Yang, Jian Chu, Cise Unluer*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The low conversion of reactive MgO cement (RMC) into hydrated magnesium hydroxy carbonates (HMHCs) due to limited CO2 diffusion towards the sample core leads to inefficient RMC use and low strength development in RMC concrete. This study proposed a novel technique to enhance hydration and carbonation at both the exterior and core sections of RMC concrete via a synergistic combination of microbial carbonation process (MCP) with nucleation seeding (S). The production of CO32− ions via the introduction of urease-producing bacteria to catalyze the hydrolysis of urea enabled self-carbonation of RMC, leading to the formation of HMHCs under ambient conditions. Improvements in CO2 dissolution and formation of brucite with a low crystallinity further stimulated HMHC formation under accelerated carbonation conditions. The simultaneous use of MCP and S resulted in dense microstructures composed of HMHCs with improved morphologies, translating into strengths that were >3 times of the control (62 vs 20 MPa).

Original languageEnglish
Article number129243
JournalConstruction and Building Materials
Volume356
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 21 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • Civil and Structural Engineering
  • Building and Construction
  • General Materials Science

Keywords

  • Acceleration
  • Carbonation
  • Curing
  • Diffusion
  • MgO

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