Functional Qualification Comparison Studies between the Preferentially Selected OPC and PPC Cements Produced in Nepal

Abstract

One of the most eminent building composites used ubiquitously in diverse engineering arenas is concrete; a reinforced admixture comprising with the definite amount cements, aggregates, water, minerals, and many other supplementary cementitious materials. Among these ingredients, the quite indispensable one that vows to dispense exceptional hardening strengths and conformational stabilities with notable weather resiliencies is cement. Owing to its versatile clinker phases, severe kiln processes, and unequal temporal hydration/rehydration affinities leading to the production of discretely functioning chemical derivatives, the entire commercial markets across the globe consume its brands primarily as OPC and PPC. The exclusive reasons behind their variable hydration, plasticity, gluing, agglomerating, setting, hardening, and enduring potencies that are disclosed comprehensively via the spectroscopic microstructural assessment procedures still become a great dearth of evidences. This contribution utmost aims to address all these functional inequalities and dissimilar workability aptitudes of the OPC & PPC cement grains by accessing to their generic crystallite phases and microstructural coherent domains through XRD and FTIR spectroscopic means. The careful probing of the X-ray diffraction angles, scattering bands, basal spacing (d-space), band intensity & interferences superposition regimes, symmetry & spatial distribution range, net integral area & FWHM, crystallites sizes (  & growth propensities, and number density of the closely stacked layers & edge plane thickness exemplify their disproportionate founding phases featuring the different packing ratio & interatomic layers crosslinking force, crystal defects & disorderliness, compressive & tensile strains, conglomeration cum grain size evolutions rates, adsorbing sites & exposable surface areas, etc. And, the rigorous judgements of the IR vibration bands and fingerprint regions deduce all those characteristic phases and their chemical moieties explicitly. These spectral interpretations not only declare their unalike functionalizing qualifications and cementitious features but also assure unidentical dissolution rates, hydration propensities, plasticity properties, and all the aftermath stiffening chemistries. We believe this insightful comparative analyses would be the leading industrial guidelines & consumer doctrines mainly for upgrading the specific cement brands & accreditations commercially.