Effect of nano-SiO2 from rice hull ash on the conductivity of cement paste

Abstract

The electrical conductivity of simulated cement paste matrixes with water-to-cement ratios of 0·50 and 2·0% amorphous nanosilica, synthesized from rice hull ash, has been related to the effect of hydration stages on the ions dissociated in the capillary pore solution of the cement paste mesostructure. The increase in ions, as the hydration proceeded, has also been implied by the increasing trend of the conductivity spectra obtained from the complex impedance spectroscopy in the frequency region from 100 kHz to 20 MHz. In the 105–107 Hz spectra, the conductivity was also found to exhibit a power-law behavior. To consider the effect of capillary pores, a comparable set of cement pastes with a similar macrostructure has been established using a modified method of simple grinding and pelletizing with a similar techniques. From the results of the Kramers–Kronig validation test, the impedance data have been found to exhibit a causal, linear and stable behavior in the high-frequency region from 6 to 20 MHz.