A ball milling strategy to disperse graphene oxide in cement composites

Ball milling was used to improve the dispersion of GO in a cement matrix in a planetary ball mill. Results indicated that the process had a negligible effect on the morphology of the GO but led to a 6.8% increase of the number of defects it contained. By adding 0.03 wt.% GO to the cement paste, its compressive strength increased by 9%, and the heat of hydration was increased 28%. The addition of GO accelerated the cement hydration, and decreased the porosity and pore size of the resulting cement paste, which were ascribed to the defects developed during ball milling and the functional groups on the GO that acted as nucleation sites for crystal growth during hydration. Ball milling provided an alternative method for the fabrication of GO-reinforced cement-based composites.