Abstract

This paper reports on the synthesis and characteristics of a novel aluminosilicate glass-based cementitious binder. We investigated the hydration kinetics, degree of reaction, and phase assemblage of the glass via XRD, DTG, ²⁷Al and ²⁹Si MAS NMR, FTIR, SEM/EDS and thermodynamic modelling. The glass exhibits hydraulic properties in which the binder developed impressive compressive strength at early age. The main hydration products are an intermixed of Na and/or Al incorporated in C–S–H gel. Hydrotalcite precipitated with slower rate and thus may generate crystallization pressure on the binder at late stage. The glass reached a high degree of hydration (ca. 73 % based on quantitative ²⁹Si NMR analysis) without using any activators or co-binding systems. Therefore, the developed glass reported herein has high potential as a new low-carbon cementitious binder since it can be synthesised from naturally occurring carbonate free silicate minerals.