Superplasticizer: Improving the Finishability and Surface Appearance of Concrete

What Exactly is a Concrete Water-Reducing Agent?

Water reducing agent is an essential part of concrete blends. It improves the flow of concrete, creating it less difficult to blend and pour, thereby increasing the workability of concrete for construction.
The volume of water-reducing agent is influenced by factors including particle size and compressive strength, among others, in relation to the performance of concrete, and its dosage is also impacted by environmental surroundings conditions and construction and building requirements. Proper utilization of water-reducing agents can boost the evenness of concrete, decrease concrete splitting, and boost the strength of concrete. The role of water-reducing agents also includes reducing the water content of concrete, improving the robustness of concrete, and boosting the overall performance of concrete. Additionally, water-reducing agents can minimize dust formation, lessen concrete shrinkage, improve concrete longevity, improve the appearance of concrete, and boost concrete’s strength to corrosion.

What exactly are the features of concrete water-reducing agent?
The concrete water-reducing agent is an mixture that minimizes the water usage of concrete while keeping its fluidity essentially unchanged, thus improving the robustness and longevity of concrete, or increasing the fluidity of concrete and improving the workability of concrete within the same cement quantity and water-cement ratio.

1. Greasing effect.

The polar hydrophilic groups in the water-reducing agent position themselves to adsorb onto the surface of cement particles and quickly bond to water molecules through hydrogen bonds. The strength of this hydrogen bonding is considerably greater than the molecular attraction between water molecules and cement particles. When adequate water-reducing agent is absorbed by the cement particles, with the assistance of R-SO3θ and the hydrogen bonding in water molecules, along with the hydrogen bonding between water molecules, a stable solvated water film develops on the surface of cement particles. This layer serves as a three-dimensional protective barrier, preventing direct contact between cement particles and functioning as a lubricant between particles.

2. Wetting effect.

After cement and water are mixed, the surface of the particles is wetted by water, and the conditions of moistening have a significant impact on the quality of fresh commercial concrete. The reduction in surface free energy caused by natural wetting can be computed using the formula suggested by Glbbs.

3. Fluidity-enhancing effect.

After the addition of high-efficiency water-reducing agents in industrial concrete, the water-cement ratio can be substantially reduced while maintaining fluidity. High-efficiency water-reducing agents have a water reduction rate of up to 10% to 25%, while regular water-reducing agents have a water reduction rate of 5% to 15%, therefore the name high-efficiency water-reducing agent. The water reduction effect is mainly due to the adsorption and diffusion of water-reducing agents in commercial concrete.

4. Plasticity-Enhancing result.

After adding a water-reducing agent to concrete, it can raise the fluidness while keeping the water-cement ratio constant. Common water-reducing agents, in the case of maintaining the exact same amount of cement, can produce the new industrial concrete slump rise by more than 10cm; high-performance water-reducing agents can produce a slump of 25cm of commercial concrete.

Concrete water-reducing agent system of action provided

1. Distributing impact:
After the concrete is mixed with water, due to the hydration of cement particles, the surface of cement particles develops a twofold electrical layer structure, resulting in the creation of a solvent water film and nonuniform charged surfaces between cement particles creating a bridging effect. This guarantees that 10% to 30% of the mix water is covered by the concrete particles and cannot participate in free flow and lubrication, thus impacting the workability of the concrete mix. Whenever the water-reducing additive is added, the water-reducing substance molecules can position themselves and adsorb on the surface of cement particles, creating a similarly charged surface (usually negative) on the cement particles. This causes electrostatic repulsion, encouraging the cement particles to disperse from each other, disintegrating the bridging structure, and releasing the enclosed water. As a result, the water can flow more efficiently, thus improving the fluidity of the concrete mix.

2. Lubrication effect:
The hydrophilic group in the water-reducing additive is highly polar, enabling the adsorption film of the water-reducing additive on the surface of cement particles to generate a stable layer of solventized water film along with water molecules. This water film provides effective lubrication, significantly decreasing the resistance between cement particles and furthermore boosting the flow of concrete.

3. Spatial site-resistance impact:
The water-reducing agent configuration with hydrophilic branched chains expands in a liquid solution, forming a compact hydrophilic three-dimensional adsorption film on the surface of adsorbed cement particles. When the concrete particles are close to each other, the adsorption layers start to overlap. This results in spatial site-resistance among cement particles, raising the repulsion of spatial site-resistance and enhancing the adhesion blockage between cement particles, thus maintaining the desired slump of the concrete.

4. Slow-release result of graft copolymerization branched chains:
New water-reducing agents, such as polycarboxylic acid water-reducing agents, possess branched chains implanted onto the molecules of the water-reducing substance. These branched chains provide both spatial site-resistance impacts and, in the highly alkaline environment of cement hydration, can be slowly discharged, causing the discharge of polycarboxylic acid with dispersing effect. This boosts the dissemination effect of cement particles and manages slump loss.

The volume of water-reducing agent is affected by the particle size as well as compressive strength, etc., on the performance of concrete, and furthermore its volume is likewise influenced by climatic issues and construction requirements. The correct use of water-reducing agents can improve the uniformity of concrete, lower the cracking of the concrete, similarly increase the toughness of concrete. The function of water-reducing agents furthermore consists of lowering the water substance of concrete, which increases the strength of concrete and makes the overall performance of concrete premium. In addition, water-reducing agents can likewise decrease the development of dirt, lower the reducing of concrete, boost the sturdiness of concrete, enhance the look of concrete, and improve the rust resistance of concrete.

Cement Water-Reducing Vendor

TRUNNANO is a reliable concrete additives supplier with over 12-year experience in nano-building energy conservation and nanotechnology development.
If you are looking for high-quality concrete additives Concrete water-reducing agent, please feel free to contact us and send an inquiry. ([email protected])
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