Precipitation of anionic emulsifier with ordinary Portland cement

Cement has traditionally been used to accelerate bitumen emulsion breaking in cold mix asphalt and cold recycling asphalt. For cold emulsion mixtures, the mixing stability of bitumen emulsion is a crucial property, because it determines the distribution of bitumen and eventually affects the microstructure and the strength development of asphalt mixtures. Recent studies have proven that the interaction between cement and emulsifiers causes the destabilization of bitumen emulsions. The objective of this study is to understand the interaction between cement particles and rosin emulsifiers. For this purpose, the Ca(2+) ions and rosin emulsifier concentration after filtration were measured to identify the interaction between cement and rosin emulsifiers. The consumed emulsifier increases linearly with the amount of added cement or CaCl2 concentration in the case of diluted rosin emulsifier solutions in which the rosin emulsifier concentration is below the CMC (critical micelle concentration). In the case of concentrated rosin emulsifier solutions (above the CMC), the rosin emulsifier concentration shows a sharp decrease when a certain amount of cement or CaCl2 is added. This study indicates that cement destabilizes anionic bitumen emulsion due to the precipitation of rosin emulsifiers caused by Ca(2+) ions which are released by early cement hydration. Further studies on precipitation behavior have shown that micelles of rosin emulsifier can complex Ca(2+) ions but do not precipitate. These findings explain why slow-setting bitumen emulsions, which contain a higher concentration of emulsifier, show better mixing stability.