Determination of Polymer Type and Content in Concrete Materials by FTIR and TGA

Polymers are commonly used in concrete materials. The type and concentration of polymer are important information for stakeholders, because they have a critical impact on the properties of concrete materials. Therefore, reliable and accurate information is highly desirable. To this end, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) are used to analyze polymer contents in construction materials. FTIR spectroscopy is a suitable technique to identify the polymer type using IR spectrum matching. Additionally, functional group information can be easily obtained from each peak. Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) method can be used to measure extracted polymers from construction materials to obtain IR spectra, and match against the library database to identify the polymer materials. TGA is one of the common thermal analysis methods. It measures the weight loss or gain of sample due to chemical reactions such as vaporization, decomposition and oxidation as a function of temperature. In this paper, we will discuss development of reliable analytical methods with which mixtures of polymer, fine aggregate and cement with different percentages of polymer content were prepared and evaluated.