Investigation of the hydration of clinker-reduced cementitious binders by 1H NMR relaxometry

In this paper, we demonstrate the value of \(^{1}\)H NMR relaxometry for studying the hydration of clinker-reduced, climate-friendly cementitious binders. Our study includes white cement (WC), ordinary Portland cement (OPC), and samples incorporating reactive agro-waste based ashes and non-reactive biochars as supplementary cementitous materials (SCM). NMR measurements were performed over a period of up to 120 h during hydration with an echo time of 50 \(\upmu\)s and a relatively large sample size of 20 mL. The results were compared to heat flow calorimetry (HFC) data, and a detailed comparison with literature data was performed for pure OPC and WC. The results show that time-resolved NMR measurements, especially the analysis of individual NMR signal components assigned to defined \(^{1}\)H reservoirs, are effective for studying hydration processes. They offer insights into the evolution of the microstrucure and specific chemical phases. NMR provides valuable information and serves as a good complement to HFC. The comparison with data obtained with shorter echo times (40 \(\upmu\)s or around 15–45 \(\upmu\)s with solid echo sequence) on much smaller samples showed almost identical developments with respect to the \(\hbox {T}_2\) distributions. For the SCM samples, NMR results indicated partially accelerated hydration processes compared to classical OPC hydration. One SCM sample acted as a highly reactive pozzolan, showing a similar hydration process to OPC with the strongest effect observed when superplasticizer was added. Adding biochar delayed C-S-H gel pore formation but significantly increased capillary pores and even free water, likely due to the sponge-like structure.