Calcium Silicate Hydrates Studied by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS)

Small‐angle neutron scattering (SANS) was used to study calcium silicate hydrate (C‐S‐H) formed via pozzolanic reaction between calcium oxide and ultrafine silica in water or polymer solutions at a temperature of 20°C. The SANS profile of this product was consistent with a structure that consisted of platelets with maximum diameters of ∼20 nm (± 5 nm) in the x–y plane, which was similar to a structure that had been deduced in previous work via X‐ray diffractometry. The presence of two different types of superplasticizer in solution (at a concentration of 10 g/L) had no significant effect on its formation kinetics or its SANS profile.