Influence of Magnetite Nanoparticles on Mechanical and Shielding Properties of Concrete

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study on the performance of shielding concrete with additives of magnetite nanoparticles. Two concretes with magnetite additives as well as one based concrete were tested. In order to achieve the high-performance concrete, all concrete mixes had a constant water/cement ratio of 0.45. In order to measure the mechanical properties, concrete samples were made in accordance with dimension such as 40 × 40 × 160 mm. But, for measurement of protective properties the concrete was made in accordance with dimension of rotary antennas such as 400 × 400 mm with a thickness of 10 mm. The nanoparticles Fe3O4 were synthesized by chemical condensation method. XRD have shown the presence of cubic structure of Fe3O4 spinel with crystallite size is equal to 130.0 Å. The TEM microphotograph shows that theFe3O4 nanoparticles are spherical, the range of sizes is 12‒30 nm. The magnetic retardation suggests that the magnetite nanoparticles have superparamagnetic properties. This is explained by the fact that under the influence of external magnetic field, they are single-domain, in other words, they become uniformly magnetized throughout the volume. The additives of magnetite nanoparticles at a concentration of 0.5% mass have not a negative effect on flexural strength. The samples with additives of magnetite nanoparticles showed better shielding of microwave radiation in the frequency range from 0.7 GHz to 13 GHz. The maximum efficiency of suppression of electromagnetic disturbance is equal to 19.9 dB at a frequency of 1.5 GHz with a thickness of 10 mm.

Keywords

• magnetite
• concrete
• nanoparticles
• flexural strength
• magnetic hysteresis
• shielding properties
• microwave