Coal-derived char as new sand replacement material in cement mortars: A comprehensive experimental study

Coal char is a coal-derived product produced by pyrolysis of char, which has valuable applications in the production of building materials. This paper presents the use of coal char in developing coal char-based cement mortar. Coal char is used to replace the sand, partially, at different proportions in cement mortar, and the change in properties is studied. Four cement types are used in the initial study, and one is selected for a detailed study based on the water retention, density, and compressive strength of the mortar. The properties of coal char-based mortar for the selected cement are comprehensively evaluated in terms of flow, water retention, air content, density, compressive strength, flexural strength, porosity, water absorption, drying shrinkage, thermal conductivity, thermogravimetric and differential thermal analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The addition of coal char at an optimum sand replacement content of 5 % increases the compressive strength of mortar by 17.55 % and the flexural strength by 17.57 %, compared to conventional cement mortar. The thermal conductivity reduces by a maximum of 20 %, compared to traditional cement mortar. This paper also presents a study to compare the addition of coal char and commercial biochar on the properties of masonry cement mortar. The compressive strength of mortar with coal char is 44.39 % greater than that of mortar with the same content of biochar. The addition of coal char as a new sand replacement material shows good potential in improving the engineering properties of mortar. [Display omitted] •Coal-char is firstly used to replace sand in cement mortar.•Addition of coal char increases strength of cement mortar.•Addition of coal char reduces thermal conductivity of cement mortar.•Coal char is better biochar in improving the strength of cement mortar.