Apart from the well-known use of cellulosic fibers to reinforce polymeric materials, during the last few years, there has been a growing interest in the use these fibers for cementitious materials. Cellulosic fibers can provide well-balanced stiffness, strength, and bonding capacity to cement-based matrices, to mainly enhance their mechanical strength and toughness. Moreover, these fibers are nonhazardous, renewable, and biodegradable, allowing the development of more sustainable and ecofriendly materials for the building industry. Despite all the aforementioned advantages, one of the main drawbacks of cellulosic fibers for cement based composite applications is their high hydrophility, which at short term is positive -there is a very good fiber-matrix adhesion- but that constitutes a long term problem –the environmental moisture diffuses through the hydrophilic matrix, leading to materials with low durability to aging-. This lack of durability due to changes in the environmental moisture which induce dimensional changes in the cellulosic fibers is further increased by the effect of the calcium hydroxide present on the cement matrix, which causes a degradation of the fibers. To overcome these problems, the research community basically applies two strategies for improving the durability of these composites: the modification of the composition of the matrix or the physical and/or chemical modification of the fibers to make them less sensitive to the matrix and environmental humidity. The aim of this research is to evaluate and compare the effects of various treatments on the durability to aging of cement based composites. On the one hand, conventional chemical treatments will be compared with more eco-friendly solutions based on plasma treatments –which use less chemicals and energy-. On the other hand, physical treatments of wet/dry cycling and mechanical refinement of the fibers -which have the advantage of being more simple procedures that only requires water and/or mechanical energy- will be also analyzed and compared with the chemical ones.

Treatments of cellulosic fibers to reduce the water absorption in composite reinforcement

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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