AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON SUPERHYDROPHOBIC COATING USING NANO-GGBS ON CEMENT MORTAR

A novel method to achieve water-repelling character upon a cement paste has been investigated. GGBS (Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag) is a by-product from steel industry which is preferred to produce a superhydrophobic surface coating for cement mortar. The super hydrophobic coating is prepared by sonicating Nanoscaled GGBS powder into a mixture of silane/siloxane. Different methods of application of coating, such as brushing, spraying and impregnation are used. In this paper, the super hydrophobic performance and durability of the coated cement mortar cubes has been reported based on water contact angle, water absorption and sorptivity. Also the reduction of surface porosity has been studied by using Ultrasonic pulse velocity test. As a result, The spray coated surfaces exhibited superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 152.2°. The performance of the impregnated samples are notably higher in water absorption, sorptivity and ultrasonic pulse velocity