Abstract
Studies of the microstructure of polymer cement composites provide information regarding the topography, leachability of the water-soluble components within and the nature of interactions between the polymer and cement particles. These enable in optimizing the macroscopic properties and also in the preparation of tailor-made composites for a given application. This paper makes an attempt to explain the morphology and nature of interactions between the cement particles and thermoplastics in polymer cement composite. All the thermoplastics in this study were added to the cement paste either as water solutions or emulsions with calcium chloride as an accelerator for hydration of the cement particles. Thermal analysis, soxhlet extraction and scanning electron micrographs (SEM) were some of the techniques employed to investigate the microstructure. The analysis obtained from the above revealed that the thermoplastics formed a film around the cement particles thereby preventing the leaching of the water-soluble components which were present in the cement matrix. Since the polymers are added to the cement before cement hydration some of the polymers undergo interactions with the cement resulting in the formation of chemical bonds between the two phases. This results in better durability properties when the composites are exposed to polluted chemical environments.