Portland cement concrete doped with chitosan: mechanical and microstructural properties

Civil construction plays an important role in energy consumption worldwide and significantly influences the total consumption of natural resources and CO2 emissions. The use of renewable materials is intrinsically related to research and innovation. Reuse and recycling, as well as the development of new materials and the discovery of new applications for already known renewable materials, can significantly contribute to sustainable development. Chitosan is a biopolymer with unique characteristics and chemical structure which, combined with its wide availability as a chitin derivative, have considerably expanded its application possibilities in the most different technological fields. In the present work, the use of chitosan for the production of concrete through optimal levels is investigated. The chitosan values incorporated in the dosage were 0.1%; 0.3% and 0.4%, in relation to the cement mass. The different concretes obtained were submitted to tests of mechanical and microstructural properties. The results showed that the microstructure was favored with the use of chitosan. In addition, they presented favorable results for the incorporation of the chitosan levels used (especially considering the samples with 0.1% of substitution), also being positive regarding the mechanical properties for most of the techniques used. This strongly indicates that chitosan can be considered as a promising material to be incorporated in the production of concrete.