Building Materials

Polycarboxylate

Applied to cement-based and plaster-based materials. Classification based on performance: 1. high water-reducing 2. high-ductility 3. slow release anti-mud. Comes in form of mother liquor or tablets, tablets have ultra-high solid content.

Melamine

High performance powder melamine superplasticizer, which is widely used in mortar within Cement-based and plaster-based systems. Having high water reducing agent content, it has excellent workability, resistant to sagging, and can significantly improve compactness and gloss of the material it is applied on.

Naphthalene Series

Excellent for making flowing, in-situ casting and precasting concrete with early and high strength requirements. Can improve performance of concrete in many aspects.

Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) is a versatile non-ionic cellulose ether polymer, which has different solubility properties, surface activity, thermal gelation and compatibility depending on the degree of substitution and modification of substituent groups. HPMC is mainly used in petrochemicals, coatings, building materials, paint removers, agricultural chemicals, inks, textile printing and dyeing, ceramics, papermaking, etc. Having a high viscosity, it can lock water in and reduce the rate of evaporation, hence can be used as a water retaining agent in cement/putty.

VAE is a copolymer of ethylene-vinyl acetate, with polyvinyl alcohol as a protective colloid. It is a water-soluble flowable powder with an white or off-white appearance. It has outstanding waterproof performance, good bonding strength, which increases elasticity of the mortar. Having an extended opening time, the material endows the mortar with excellent alkali resistance, improving adhesion/adhesiveness, flexural strength, plasticity, and durability of the mortar.

Organic

The most commonly used organic early strength agents are triethanolamine and calcium oxalate. Triethanolamine is a surfactant that is mixed into cement concrete and acts as a catalyst in the cement hydration process. It can accelerate the hydration of C3A and the formation of ettringite. Triethanolamine is often used in combination with chloride salt early strength agent, boosting its effect. Other common organic early strength agents include calcium formate, acetic acid and acetate. In addition, triisopropanolamine shows moderate early strength performance in application, and has been shown to simultaneously improve later strength of concrete.

Composite

Compounding of various early strength agent components and water reducer components lead to better modification effects as compared to using a single material. By largely raising the concrete's early rate of development, it is possible to: improve concrete early strength without compromising later strength development; introduce water reducing effects and in the meanwhile accelerate early strength development, all while avoiding agents corroding steel structures within the cement.

An accelerant is an admixture that can make concrete set and harden rapidly. The main types are inorganic salts and organic substances. Typically in the form of a powdery solid, its dosage only accounts for 2% to 3% of the cement in concrete. The accelerant can make the concrete start setting in 5 minutes and complete setting in 12 minutes. Thus, it is often used to achieve emergency repair or rapid condensation of concrete in shafts. It is an indispensable additive in shotcrete construction method. The accelerant's function is to accelerate hydration and hardening of cement and form sufficient strength in a short period of time, in order to meet requirements of special construction.

Waterproofing agents are chemical admixtures added to cement. It expands in volume during setting to compensate for shrinkage, prestress steel rods, and fill any gaps. Commonly used waterproofing agent cement mortars include: chloride metal salt waterproofing agent cement mortar, inorganic aluminum salt waterproofing agent cement mortar, metal soap salt waterproofing agent cement mortar, silicon waterproofing agent cement mortar, fatty acid waterproofing agent, etc.

These materials are based from sheet-like silicate mineral materials. In aqueous systems, these sheet silicate mineral materials can form a structure akin to a house of cards, which increases the base viscosity within the system. The structure is easily disrupted by shear forces. These additives are specially developed for dry powder and paste systems. They produce exceptional effects and control viscosity, yield point, stability and workability.

Repels water, sold as generic hydrophobic agent and hydrophobic agents specialised for external wall waterproofing. These materials are resistant to pH changes, anti-corrosive, anti-carbonization, and moisture proof.

Cement retarders can delay the cement hydration reaction, thereby prolonging the setting time of concrete, making fresh concrete maintain plasticity for a long time, facilitating pouring, and improving construction efficiency. It does not affect concrete in the later stage admixtures. Examples include Lignosulfonate and its derivatives, low molecular weight cellulose and its derivatives, hydroxycarboxylic acid (salt), organic phosphonic acid (salt), boric acid (salt), etc.

 An air-entraining agent is a hydrophobic surfactant that can be dissolved in water and added to the concrete mixture to generate a large number of tiny air bubbles during the mixing process. The air-entraining agent can improve workability, water retention and cohesion of the concrete mixture, improve fluidity of the concrete, and introduce a large number of uniformly distributed, closed and stable micro-bubbles during the mixing process.

Generic Starch

Starch ether modified from potato, corn, cassava, etc. has significantly lower water retention than cellulose ether. Due to the different degree of modification, there is variation in terms of stability to acid and alkali. Some products are suitable for use in plaster-based mortars, while others can be used in cement-based mortars.

Guar Ether

Guar gum ether, modified from natural guar beans, is a kind of starch ether with special properties. Production is done through the etherification reaction of guar gum and acrylic functional group, forming a polygalactomannose structure containing 2-hydroxypropyl functional groups.

Modified Mineral Water Retention Thickener

Water-retaining thickeners made of natural minerals through modification and compounding are widely used in China. The main minerals used here are sepiolite, bentonite, montmorillonite, kaolin, etc. These minerals have certain water-retaining and thickening properties through modification such as coupling agents.

Dry powder defoamer has excellent defoaming abilities, defoaming rates and good foam suppression performances. It is suitable for neutral and alkaline systems, has good adaptability to cement-based and plaster-based mortars, and has good compatibility with various additives.  

Three most common types of retarders: organic acids and their soluble salts, alkaline phosphates, and protein retarders. The retarders of organic acids and their soluble salts mainly include citric acid, sodium citrate, tartaric acid, potassium tartrate, acrylic acid and sodium acrylate, among which citric acid and its salts are the most researched and the most effective. Citric acid and its salts can achieve a strong retarding effect when the dosage is small. Phosphate retarders mainly include sodium hexametaphosphate and sodium polyphosphate.

PVA fiber for concrete (or mortar) is an ideal environment-friendly cement reinforcement material. Due to its unique molecular structure, it has good affinity with cement, and good alkali and weather resistance. Adding PVA fiber to cement concrete (or mortar) can effectively prevent formation of cracks in concrete (or mortar) caused by factors such as plastic shrinkage and temperature changes, and improve the flexural strength and impact resistance of concrete. 

Polypropylene short fiber can improve the crack resistance, impermeability, abrasion resistance, frost resistance, blast resistance and workability of concrete of mortar/concrete. Tens of millions of fibers are evenly distributed in the mortar/concrete, which plays a very good role in micro-reinforcement, in sort that the integrity of the structure is well maintained, and the structure is prevented from being scattered into many fragments when it is damaged by impact. In addition, prevention of corrosion of steel beams in the structure can greatly prolong the service life of the project and reduce the maintenance cost of the project.

Xylem fiber is an organic flocculent fiber material obtained from natural renewable wood through chemical treatment and mechanical processing.