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Towards Ultra-Rapid and High-Toughness Cementing: A Synergistic Acceleration Leveraging Aluminum Sulfate and Sodium Alginate Copolymer Along with Glass Fibers

Song Z, Chaudhary S, Ding Y, Yan Y, Wu Y, Jia Q, Li X, Sun Y

Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland), 2026

Abstract

This study synthesizes two highly water-soluble copolymers, p(SA-co-SMAS) and p(SA-co-SMAS-co-AMPS) using sodium alginate (SA), sodium 2-methylprop-2-ene-1-sulfonate (SMAS), and 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid (AMPS, with or without addition) as precursors. Under ball milling, these copolymers are blended with aluminum sulfate and glass fibers to produce two series of cement admixtures. Compared to systems without admixtures or with pure aluminum sulfate as sole admixture, the admixture obtained from p(SA-co-SMAS) and aluminum sulfate significantly shortens the initial setting time (4.47 vs. 33.59 and 29.51 min) and final setting time (8.46 vs. 45.26 and 35.12 min), while markedly improving compressive strength (9.2 vs. 3.5 and 4.3 MPa) and flexural strength (3.5 vs. 1.0 and 1.1 MPa). This enhancement is attributed to the formation of a unique boehmite (AlO(OH)) phase in synthesized admixture, which rapidly reacts with tricalcium silicate, gypsum, and water in cement to form ettringite (Ca6Al2(SO4)3(OH)12·26H2O). The ettringite interlocks with the two-dimensional C-S-H gel, creating a stable three-dimensional network. Further blending this admixture with 200-mesh glass fibers yields a new admixture containing Al4SO4(OH)10·36H2O. Compared to boehmite, this phase further reduces setting times and increases average compressive strength (10.2 vs. 9.2 MPa). The admixture derived from p(SA-co-SMAS-co-AMPS) and aluminum sulfate shows even better performance: setting…

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