Granulometric synthesis and characterisation of dispersed nanosilica powder and its application in cementitious system

Dispersed, spherical particles of nanosilica with controllable size have been synthesised using a metal alkoxide, i.e. tetraethoxysilane, as starting material, ammonia as base catalyst and non-ionic surfactant as template by sol–gel method. Size of particles and dispersivity were controlled by varying the surfactant chain length and temperature conditions of the reaction mixture. Silica nanoparticles were synthesised using a series of non-ionic surfactants, namely Polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monolaurate (Tween 20) and Polyoxyethylene (80) sorbitan monooleate (Tween 80), at different reaction temperatures of 25, 50, 70 and 90°C. The particle size of silica nanoparticles gradually decreased with increasing carbon chain length of the surfactant and at higher temperature particle size became larger. Furthermore, these silica nanoparticles are incorporated into the cementitious system to improve the mechanical properties and reduce calcium leaching in the hydration process. Addition of silica nanoparticles into cement paste improves the microstructure of the paste, and calcium leaching is significantly reduced as silica nanoparticles react with calcium hydroxide, thereby forming a denser calcium–silicate–hydrate gel structure. Synthesised silica nanoparticles and microstructure of cement paste incorporated with silica nanoparticles were analysed using scanning electron microscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy (IR), ²⁹Si MAS NMR and thermogravimetry analysis for morphological and mineralogical attributes.