Graphene oxide-incorporated cementitious composites: a thorough investigation

Abstract

The use of nanomaterials, particularly carbon-derived ones, has always been a high-tech topic of research in the field of cement and concrete. Graphene and its derivatives are the most popular carbon-based nano-additives in cementitious composites. Although the literature covers many aspects of this field, the existence of comprehensive research on physical, mechanical and durability-related characteristics of graphene oxide (GO)-incorporated cement composites is required. This study scrutinises flowability, flow loss, setting time, ultrasonic pulse velocity, electrical resistivity, compressive strength, flexural strength, water sorptivity, apparent density and volume of permeable voids (VPV) of cement composites reinforced by 0.01 wt% to 0.5 wt% GO by weight of cement. The results indicated that using GO reduced the initial setting time by 9–23% and flowability by up to 31%. While the electrical resistivity of GO-incorporated specimens was higher than the normal cementitious composites, the highest resistivity was achieved in a specimen with 0.05% GO. The transmitted pulse velocity through the specimens showed that despite a reduction in specimen with 0.01% GO, the UPV of other specimens was above 4 km s⁻¹, displaying a good structural quality and homogeneity. A noticeable improvement of up to 28% and 50% in compressive and flexural strength was witnessed with the addition of GO. Moreover, the inclusion of GO significantly improved transport properties as it lowered the VPV and water sorptivity by up to 15% and 66%, depending on the added percentage of GO.