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Introductory Chapter: Properties and Applications of Cement- Based Materials

Cement-based materials have been used to support human civilizations many decades ago. With the increasing advancement of human activities, these materials were modified to maintain their roles in our lives. The main function of cement is to act as hydraulic binder, which increases the bond between fragmented particles, so it can enable their use in different fields. The resulted material will have different physical and mechanical properties from the initial materials. These changed properties are attributed to the exothermic hydration reactions that are initiated upon mixing the binder with water. The liberated localized heat will lead irreversible rearrangement of water molecules within the framework microstructure [1–3]. Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) is the most widely used cement. It is prepared by crushing, milling, and mixing calcium, iron, silica, alumina, and sulfate sources with certain amounts. Then, hydraulic cement is passed to the kiln to produce clinker, which is subsequently cooled and pulverized. Portland cement is categorized into eight subgroups according to the ASTM C150, namely normal (type I), moderate sulfate resistance (type II), high early strength (type III), low heat of hydration (type IV), high sulfate resistance (type V), normal, moderate sulfate resistance, and high early resistance with air entraining (types IA, IIA, IIIA), respectively [4]. There are four principal unhydrated phases present in all OPC types, namely tricalcium silicate (Ca3SiO5), dicalcium silicate (Ca2SiO4), tricalcium aluminate (Ca3Al2O5), and calcium aluminoferrite (Ca4AlnFe2-nO7). The formula of each of these minerals can be broken down into the basic calcium, silicon, aluminum, and iron oxides (Table 1). Cement chemists use abbreviated nomenclature based on oxides of various elements to indicate chemical formulae of relevant species, that is, C = CaO, S = SiO2, A = Al2O3, and F = Fe2O3. Hence, traditional cement nomenclature abbreviates each oxide as shown in Table 1 [1].