Effects of surfactants on the properties of mortar containing styrene/methacrylate superplasticizer

Abstract

The physical and mechanical properties of mortar containing synthetic cosurfactants as air entraining agent are investigated. The cosurfactants consist of a combination of 2% dodecyl benzene sodium sulfonate (DBSS) and either 1.5% polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or 1.5% polyoxyethylene glycol monomethyl ether (POE). Also these cosurfactants were used to prepare copolymers latex: styrene/butyl methacrylate (St/BuMA), styrene/methyl methacrylate (St/MMA), and styrene/glycidyl methacrylate (St/GMA), in order to study their effects on the properties of mortar. The properties of mortar examined included flow table, W/C ratio, setting time, water absorption, compressive strength, and combined water. The results indicate that the latex causes improvement in mortar properties compared with cosurfactants. Also polymer latex containing DBSS/POE is more effective than that containing DBSS/PVA. Copyright © 2014 El-Sayed Negim et al.The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding provided by the European Union under the Marie Curie Action International Incoming Fellowships (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IIF), Grant agreement PIIF-GA-2011 (Project no. 300427) ProSeC, for research on the production of sustainable self-compacting concrete.Published versio