Effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes on the damping property of cement mortar and mechanism analysis

The effect of the type and content of multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the damping performance of cement mortar is studied in this paper. The pristine MWCNTs (P-CNT) and the functionalized MWCNTs (F-CNT) grafted with COOH were used in the experiment. The content of MWCNTs was 0.05wt% and 0.1wt% of cement. The flexural/compressive strength and loss factor of CNT-mortar composites were measured. The experimental results show that MWCNTs can significantly enhance the flexural strength and loss factor, and the values increased with the increase of CNTs content. The effect F-CNT was better than P-CNT when the MWCNTs content was the same due to the presence of COOH. The mechanism of MWCNTs reinforced mortar damping performance was analyzed by a variety of micro test techniques. The test results of X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetry showed that MWCNTs did not change the compositions of mortar, but improved the polymerization degree of gel and the degree of hydration of cement. The results of mercury intrusion porosimetry, N2 adsorption and backscattered scanning electron microscopy showed that MWCNTs effectively reduced the porosity and interfacial transition zone thickness of mortar. Transmission electron microscope results showed that the energy dissipation capacity of mortar is increased due to the bridging effect of MWCNTs.