Hydration and strength development of cementitious materials prepared with phosphorous-bearing clinkers

To rationally use low-grade phosphorous limestone as the raw materials for cement production, the influence of phosphorous introduced by fluorapatite during the clinker calcination process on the mechanical properties of cementitious materials is investigated. Hydration kinetics, phase evolutions, and microstructure of cement pastes have been studied by using calorimetry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicate that the mechanical properties of cementitious materials can be slightly improved due to the mineralization effect of the small amount of phosphorous in the clinker and significantly decreased with an increase of phosphorous. High content of phosphorous will reduce the content of C₃S and make the formation of α^′-C₂S-xC₃P(x: 0–0.05), whose hydration reactivity is rather lower, such that on the one hand less-hydrated products, such as calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gel, can be obtained, and on the other hand, the hydration reaction will be slowed by severely prolonging the induction period. Interestingly, small particles can be observed on the surface of hydration products, but no new phase can be detected by XRD. When the content of P₂O₅ is 2.0%, the cement can meet the requirements of P·II 42.5 cement in China. Hopefully, this can provide significant guidance for the use of cement prepared by fluorapatite as raw material.