Self-Healing Nano Additives for Enhancing the Durability and Sustainability of Cementitious Systems

Self-healing nano additives are nanomaterials that can improve the durability and sustainability of cementitious systems by repairs at the nano-level. Nano titania, also known as nano-TiO2, has a distinctive self-healing capacity whereby it not only increases the mechanical strength of cement composites and concrete composites but also enhance the environmental remediation of cementitious systems by degrading organic pollutants thereby making it more durable & ultimately sustainable. Our paper reports the effect of adding hydrophobic 40 nm dia. nano- sized Titania( NT) patches by functionalizing them to hydrophilic via. face revision or wrapping by new generation pH neutral polymeric cocktails & added them to cement beach rate of 13 with a water- cement rate of 0.4. Mechanical strength results of the cementitious mixes were taken at all terms up to 365 Days( D). The optimized volume of NT as set up in cement mixes is also added to M- 40 Grade concrete mixes for compressive strength testing at both shorter & longer terms following Indian standard protocols. Results reveal that the operation of NT in cementitious systems has an advanced effect when compared with non-NT cementitious systems and the former is more durable & sustainable. Photocatalytic NT is also time durable and the microstructural examinations expose the crystallographic nature of NT, which is the main reason for their favourable mechanical impacts.