Large SEM-BSE images of hydrated belite of ages from 14 days up to 1 year

This dataset contains 8-Bit SEM-BSE images of commercially available dicalcium silicate (C2S; belite; Vustah, Czech Republic). The belite was mixed with a water/binder ratio of 0.5. The paste was the cast in small sealed containers, which were submersed with water. The specimens were stored at 22 ± 2°C.

After the desired hydration times (14, 28, 84, 365 days) the hydration was stopped by immersing the prisms in isopropanol and drying them at 60°C for 12 hours. The dried prisms were then embedded in low viscosity epoxy resin and mechanically polished using diamond paste with a grain size down to 0.25 µm. Finally, the specimens were coatet with a thin layer of carbon to avoid charging.

The images were acquired at 12 kV using a CBS (concentric backscatter) detector within a Thermofischer Helios G4 UX.

Table 1: Basic information like resolution, size and phase composition of the images.

file
age
size
size
area
pores
hydrates
clinker

in days
in px
in µm
in mm²
area-%
area-%
area-%

C2S 14d.tif
14
36864 x 36864
1554.0 x 1554.0
2.41
31.4
43.5
25.2

C2S 28d.tif
28
36864 x 36864
1554.0 x 1554.0
2.41
15.9
62.6
21.5

C2S 84d.tif
84
36864 x 36864
1554.0 x 1554.0
2.41
19.3
65.6
15.2

C2S 365d.tif
365
36864 x 36864
1554.0 x 1554.0
2.41
23.8
64.4
12.0

The proportions of pores, hydrates and unhydrated clinker shown in table 1 are the result of manual thresholding of denoised versions of these images and may therefore differ to own measurements.

The scaling is backed into the file and can be read using ImageJ/Fiji.

The unstitched files are provded as 7z archives. The sub-images were arranged in a 10 x 10 grid. The pixel scaling of these files is the same as in the larger files.

Internal note

These files are included in the following MAPS datasets:

2023_05_24 C32-C2S 14-84 d

2023_06_08 C2S-C3S 28d-1year

Funding

The research was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), grant number 344069666.