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Updated: Sep 12, 2026

In Situ Monitoring of Diffusion of Guest Molecules in Porous Media Using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: September 2, 2016
What is the surface specific area of porous cement-based material? A nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion approach
F Barberon1, J-P Korb, D Petit
1Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, UMR 7643 du CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
Abstract:
We propose a new NMR method to measure and follow the evolution of the surface specific area, Sp, of a porous cement-based material. This method, that does not require any preliminary drying process, uses nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion (NMRD), the measurement of spin-lattice relaxation rate as a function of magnetic field strength or nuclear Larmor frequency. The method is applied for three different mortars samples prepared by mixing cement, sand, silica fume, water and superplasticizer with a water to cement ratio w/c=0.25, 0.38 and 0.65, respectively. The evolution of Sp grows linearly with the degree of advancement of chemical reactions measured by thermal heating and we evidence two relaxation processes independent of the w/c ratio.
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