Investigation of the properties of graphene oxide additive cement pastes containing beta carotene

Cement paste which is a vital component of the construction industry, is constantly being demanded by the building industry. The development of new sustainable building materials is quite important to meet the requirements of the global sustainable economy. Although nanomaterials and natural additives are used to improve mortar properties for a sustainable cement mortar production, Beta-carotene (BC) has not been considered as a bioadditive before. In this study, beta carotene, graphene oxide (GO) and silver nanoparticles were used to produce bioadditive cement mortars. The results showed that; the addition of BC to the cement mortar increased the percentage of water absorption and total porosity, while decreasing the electrical resistivity, ultrasonic sound velocity and compressive strength. The reason for this is the barrier effect formed by BC between cement particles and water molecules. BC may have prevented cement hydration and caused porosity in the cement matrix. In addition, GO was somewhat effective in reducing the porosity of cement mortars with BC additives. According to the FTIR results, it was observed that the use of BC in cement mortar prevented the formation of hydrated products such as calcite.