Nanomechanics and Pore Structure of Sodium and Potassium Geopolymer Gels: Experiments, Molecular Dynamics and Coarse-Grained Simulations

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Masoero, Enrico, Duque-Redondo, Eduardo, Lee, Haklae, Xu, Yunzhi, Lolli, Francesca, Kamseu, Elie, Akono, Ange-Therese
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912354355118080
author Masoero, Enrico
Duque-Redondo, Eduardo
Lee, Haklae
Xu, Yunzhi
Lolli, Francesca
Kamseu, Elie
Akono, Ange-Therese
author_facet Masoero, Enrico
Duque-Redondo, Eduardo
Lee, Haklae
Xu, Yunzhi
Lolli, Francesca
Kamseu, Elie
Akono, Ange-Therese
contents The link between composition, microstructure and mechanics of NASH and KASH gels is elusive, even in pure metakaolin-based geopolymers. This article exploits molecular mechanics, coarse-grained nanomechanics and micromechanics, to interpret new experimental results from microscopy, porosimetry and nanoindentation. KASH displays a finer nanogranular structure than NASH (3 vs 30 nm particle diameters, 5 vs 50 nm average pore diameters), higher skeletal density (2.3 vs 2.02 g/cm$^3$), nanoindentation moduli (9.21 vs 7.5 GPa) and hardness (0.56 vs 0.37 GPa) despite a higher total porosity (0.48-0.53 vs 0.38). This suggests a stiffer and stronger solid skeleton for KASH, confirmed through predictive molecular dynamics simulations on recent and new models of NASH and KASH. The atomistic simulations inform mechanical interactions for new, coarse-grained, particle-based models of NASH and KASH. The resulting simulations predict the nanoindentation result that KASH is stiffer than equally porous NASH and the impact of formation eigenstresses on elastic moduli.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_16582
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Nanomechanics and Pore Structure of Sodium and Potassium Geopolymer Gels: Experiments, Molecular Dynamics and Coarse-Grained Simulations
Masoero, Enrico
Duque-Redondo, Eduardo
Lee, Haklae
Xu, Yunzhi
Lolli, Francesca
Kamseu, Elie
Akono, Ange-Therese
Materials Science
The link between composition, microstructure and mechanics of NASH and KASH gels is elusive, even in pure metakaolin-based geopolymers. This article exploits molecular mechanics, coarse-grained nanomechanics and micromechanics, to interpret new experimental results from microscopy, porosimetry and nanoindentation. KASH displays a finer nanogranular structure than NASH (3 vs 30 nm particle diameters, 5 vs 50 nm average pore diameters), higher skeletal density (2.3 vs 2.02 g/cm$^3$), nanoindentation moduli (9.21 vs 7.5 GPa) and hardness (0.56 vs 0.37 GPa) despite a higher total porosity (0.48-0.53 vs 0.38). This suggests a stiffer and stronger solid skeleton for KASH, confirmed through predictive molecular dynamics simulations on recent and new models of NASH and KASH. The atomistic simulations inform mechanical interactions for new, coarse-grained, particle-based models of NASH and KASH. The resulting simulations predict the nanoindentation result that KASH is stiffer than equally porous NASH and the impact of formation eigenstresses on elastic moduli.
title Nanomechanics and Pore Structure of Sodium and Potassium Geopolymer Gels: Experiments, Molecular Dynamics and Coarse-Grained Simulations
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.16582