Effect of Nanoparticles on Mechanical Properties of Cement-Sand Mortar Applications

Cement-sand mortar is a construction material widely used; tile adhesive is one of the main applications where the compressive strength is the key performance metric. Nanoparticles like MWCNTs and HNTs are currently being used to improve the mechanical performance of the cement mortar due to their proper-ties. The cost of MWCNTs has limited their application in the construction in-dustry. This study focuses on the effect of two different concentrations of MWCNTs and HNTs in cement mortar; HNTs are proposed in this study to compare performance and cost overall benefits. A common problem with MWCNTs is agglomeration; to achieve a proper dispersion an ultrasonic pro-cessor was utilized. Mechanical properties of a cement mortar modified with nanoparticles were investigated with compression and bending tests on speci-mens performed at the age of 7 days. Results showed that concentrations of 0.1% of MWCNTs increase in compression strength by 56% and concentrations of 0.1% of HNTs performance increased by 31%, both compared to plain ce-ment mortar.