Measurement of Proton Spin Diffusivity in Hydrated Cementitious Solids

The study of hydration and crystallization processes involving inorganic oxides is often complicated by poor long-range order and the formation of heterogeneous domains or surface layers. In solid-state NMR, H-1-H-1 spin diffusion analyses can provide information on spatial composition distributions, domain sizes, or miscibility in both ordered and disordered solids. Such analyses have been implemented in organic solids but crucially rely on separate measurements of the 1 H-1 spin diffusion coefficients in closely related systems. We demonstrate that an experimental NMR method, in which "holes" of well-defined dimensions are created in proton magnetization, can be applied to determine spin diffusion coefficients in cementitious solids hydrated with O-17-enriched water. We determine proton spin diffusion coefficients of 240 +/- 40 nm(2)/s for hydrated tricalcium aluminate and 140 +/- 20 nm(2)/s for hydrated tricalcium silicate under quasistatic conditions.