Nickel plated carbon nanotubes reinforcing concrete composites: from nano/micro structures to macro mechanical properties

Owing to their small size, good wettability, uniform dispersion ability and high thermal properties, the nickel-plated carbon nanotubes (Ni-CNTs) with different aspect ratios are used to reinforce reactive powder concrete (RPC) through modifying the nano/micro- structural units of concrete. Incorporating only 0.075 vol% of Ni-CNTs (0.03 vol% of CNTs) can significantly increase mechanical properties of RPC. The enhancement effect on compressive strength caused by the incorporation of Ni-CNTs with aspect ratio of 1000 reaches 26.8%/23.0 MPa, mainly benefiting from the high polymerization C-S-H gels, low porosity, and refined pore structure. The 33.5%/1.92 MPa increases of flexural strength can be attributed to the decrease of large pore, original cracks, molar ratio of CaO to SiO₂, and gel water content when Ni-CNTs with aspect ratio of 125 are added. Ni-CNTs with aspect ratio of 1500 have the largest utilization rate of being pulled-out, resulting from the improvement of dispersibility and the pining effect of nickel coating and then leading to the increased toughness. Therefore, incorporating Ni-CNTs can fundamentally modify the nano/micro- scale structural nature of RPC, providing a bottom-up approach for controlling the properties of RPC.