An in-situ Raman spectroscopy study of the hydration of tricalcium silicate

Abstract Raman spectroscopy has been used to study the hydration kinetics of tricalcium silicate (C 3 S). The progress of the reaction was followed by two different methods: the first one is based on measurement of the intensity of characteristic C 3 S Raman bands compared with that of an internal Standard Raman peak (TiO 2 ); the second one consists in measuring the relative intensity of Raman peaks associated with C 3 S and calcium hydroxide. These two concordant data sets show that a change in the hydration mechanism occurs at about 13 hours, and enable the kinetic parameters associated with the two hydration processes to be derived.