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Spherical silica nanoparticles (n-SiO2) with controllable size have been synthesized using tetraethoxysilane as starting material and ethanol as solvent by sol-gel method. Morphology and size of the particles was controlled through surfactants. Sorbitan monolaurate, sorbitain monopalmitate and sorbitain monostearate produced silica nanoparticles of varying sizes (80-150 nm), indicating the effect of chain length of the surfactant. Increase in chain length of non-ionic surfactant resulted in decreasing particle size of silica nanoparticles. Further, the size of silica particles was also controlled using NH3 as base catalyst. These silica nanoparticles were incorporated into cement paste and their role in accelerating the cementitious reactions was investigated. Addition of silica nanoparticles into cement paste improved the microstructure of the paste and calcium leaching is significantly reduced as n-SiO2 reacts with calcium hydroxide and form additional calciumsilicate-hydrate (C-S-H) gel. It was found that calcium hydroxide content in silica nanoparticles incorporated cement paste reduced ~89% at 1 day and up to ~60% at 28 days of hydration process. Synthesized silica particles and cement paste samples were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).

Preparation of dispersed, amorphous, spherical silica nanoparticles using cationic surfactant as organic template, tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) as silica precursor and ammonia as catalyst has been carried out using sol gel process. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the simultaneous effects of cationic surfactant on the textural and structural properties of silica nanoparticles. We used a series of the cationic surfactants, dodecytrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB), tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) to evaluate the effects of the chain length of cationic surfactant on the grain size of silica nanoparticles. The size of silica nanoparticles can be finely tuned in the range *50-100 nm by changing the chain length of cationic surfactant. Decreasing the particle size of silica nano particles resulted in increase in chain length of cationic surfactant. Further, these silica nanoparticles are incorporated with cement paste to evaluate the beneficial effect on mechanical properties of cement. Synthesized silica nanoparticles were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), 29 Si MAS NMR, powder X-ray diffraction techniques (XRD) and IR studies.

The influence of powdered and colloidal nano-silica (NS) on the mechanical properties of cement mortar has been investigated. Powdered-NS (*40 nm) was synthesized by employing the sol-gel method and compared with commercially available colloidal NS (*20 nm). SEM and XRD studies revealed that the powdered-NS is non-agglomerated and amorphous, while colloidal-NS is agglomerated in nature. Further, these nanoparticles were incorporated into cement mortar for evaluating compressive strength, gel/space ratio, portlandite quantification, C-S-H quantification and chloride diffusion. Approximately, 27 and 37 % enhancement in compressive strength was observed using colloidal and powdered-NS, respectively, whereas the same was up to 19 % only when silica fume was used. Gel/space ratio was also determined on the basis of degree of hydration of cement mortar and it increases linearly with the compressive strength. Furthermore, DTG results revealed that lime consumption capacity of powdered-NS is significantly higher than colloidal-NS, which results in the formation of additional calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H). Chloride penetration studies revealed that the powdered-NS significantly reduces the ingress of chloride ion as the microstructure is considerably improved by incorporating into cement mortar.