(1) Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabanci University, Orhanli-Tuzla 34956 - Istanbul - Turkey
Calcium aluminate cement (CAC) suffers from loss of workability in less than an hour (~15 minutes)
after first touch of water. Current superplasticizers that are utilized to modify the viscosity of cement
admixtures are designed to target ordinary Portland cement (OPC). The high affinity between these
superplasticizers and cement particles were found to be detrimental in CAC systems. Utilization of
a monomer that, instead, facilitates gradual adsorption of a superplasticizer provides workability
retention. For the first time in literature, we report a superplasticizer that caters to the properties
of CAC such as high rate of surface development and surface charge. While neat CAC was almost
unworkable after 1 hour, with the addition of only 0.4% of the optimized superplasticizer, 90% fluidity
retention was achieved.