Identification of Binding Peptides on Calcium Silicate Hydrate : A Novel View on Cement Additives

Abstract

Cement is the most used industrial product in the world. Although the chemical composition of the material has stayed more or less the same since its discovery by the Romans around 2000 years ago, [ 1 ] the performance has been increased by chemical additives. Spectacular buildings like the Willis Tower in Chicago, Taipei 101 or lately the over 800 m high Burj Khalifa in Dubai were realizable thanks to the development of high performance building materials. [ 2 ] Not only for such prestige objects but also in daily building processes, the trend goes towards always higher buildings because of the continued urbanization which was identifi ed already in 1982 as one of the so-called “megatrends”. [ 3 ] Therefore, the requirements for building materials are getting more and more demanding. Industry tries to face this challenge with sophisticated products that modify chemical or physical properties of cement according to the desired properties. Such products can for example be superplasticizers (e.g. polycarboxylate ethers), which improve the viscosity or inorganic chemical additives modifying the hydration and/or the development of mechanical properties.