It is said that adding sugar to cement can soften cement. Is it true?/You don't say.

Generally speaking, sugar is an organic substance, and organic surfactants can be adsorbed on the surface of cement minerals to prevent the hydration of cement minerals and slow down the hydration speed of cement. As long as its content is strictly controlled, it can play the role of retarder. Retarder should be added in an appropriate amount, too much will reduce the strength of concrete. Because of the hot weather, the cement will soon harden. In order to slow down the hardening speed of cement, workers usually use white sugar with high cost performance as a buffer.

When building a house in my hometown, I wonder if my friends have found such a strange phenomenon. Many workers add sugar to cement. Why do workers add sugar to cement? Generally speaking, sugar is an organic substance, and organic surfactants can be adsorbed on the surface of cement minerals, thus forming a thin film on the surface of cement particles, preventing water molecules from diffusing into unhydrated cement particles and delaying cement clinker particles, thus achieving the purpose of retarding setting. The main components of cement are limestone, clay, gypsum and sand, and chemical reactions will occur in river water.

Cement powder will eventually produce hydrated calcium silicate. If sugar is added, tricalcium silicate particles, the main component of cement, will be adsorbed. Calcium silicate hydrate on the particle surface will also be eliminated, and cement will not become cement. So sugar has become a magical material to control the setting time of cement, but not all sugar can alleviate the setting time of cement. When cement is mixed with a proper amount of water, it will form a plastic slurry that can bond sand and gravel, and then it will gradually become a solid stone-like body through coagulation and hardening.

Some sugars can be used as thickeners, such as dried methylglucose, which is usually used as a tool for synthesizing polymethylpolyester polyols and branching regulators. There are many commercial retarders on the market now, but most of them are expensive, or the price of white sugar is relatively clear? The seawater passing through the bridge has high chloride ion content and strong corrosiveness, so ordinary concrete cannot be used. In order to solve this problem, the construction unit invited experts from Peking University and Tsinghua to suit the remedy to the case, developed high-durability marine concrete and successfully laid the sea-crossing bridge. In hot weather. Cement will harden quickly. In order to slow down the hardening speed of cement, workers usually use more suitable white sugar as a buffer.