Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 4, 2026

NMR 15N Relaxation Experiments for the Investigation of Picosecond to Nanoseconds Structural Dynamics of Proteins
Published on: November 1, 2024
Proton NMR relaxation as a probe for setting cement pastes
Paméla F Faure1, Stéphane Rodts
1Université Paris-Est, Institut Navier, Laboratoire des Matériaux et Structures du Génie Civil, LCPC-ENPC-CNRS, 2 allée Képler, 77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France. pamela.faure@lcpc.fr
Abstract:
We report a 20-MHz proton nuclear magnetic resonance T1 relaxation study of cement paste hydration in the early stages of setting, using different centimeter-sized samples of cements of various origins and different water-to-cement ratios. In every sample, during the first few minutes of hydration, it is found that inverse Laplace processing of inversion-recovery measurements systematically exhibits at least two T1 values: a long one, around 100 ms, whose value correlates well with water content and which may be attributed to bulk water surrounding cement grains; and a short one, around 2 ms, which is quite insensitive to water-to-cement ratio and which may be attributed to water embedded in floculated cement grains before setting occurs. The time evolution of the longest T1 value for several hours is also shown to exhibit a characteristic five-stage behavior that is well correlated with known stages of the hydration process: initial reaction, induction period, acceleration period, deceleration period and slow hydration reaction. These results are compared with calorimetric measurements and electrical conductivity literature.
More Related Videos
08:0915N CPMG Relaxation Dispersion for the Investigation of Protein Conformational Dynamics on the µs-ms Timescale
Published on: April 19, 2021
07:24Paramagnetic Relaxation Enhancement for Detecting and Characterizing Self-Associations of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
Published on: September 23, 2021
Related Concept Videos
Porosity in Cement Paste
The balance of water to cement in the mix is critical—it...
¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Temporal Resolution
¹H NMR of Labile Protons: Temporal Resolution
The –OH proton in alcohols typically appears in the range of δ 2 to 5 ppm but can vary depending on the specific...
¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Variable-Temperature NMR
¹³C NMR: Distortionless Enhancement by Polarization Transfer (DEPT)
NMR Spectrometers: Resolution and Error Correction