Abrasion and Strength of high percentage Graphene Oxide (GO) Incorporated Concrete

Incorporating Graphene Oxide (GO) in concrete composite has been a good alternative to Pristine Graphene due to its hydrophilic nature and its ability to readily disperse in water the consequent cementitious mix. The addition of GO to the cementitious mix has been found to enhance mechanical properties. This paper aims to assess the abrasion resistance of GO incorporated concrete for its application in road pavement design. Experiments for strength in terms of compression, workability in terms of slump and abrasion resistance in accordance with ASTM-C418-20 using a sand-blasting rig are presented in the paper. It is shown that the addition of GO at percentages between 0% to 0.08% (to cement weight ratio), the compressive strength improves by 39% and 26% at 7 days and 28 days, respectively. The addition of GO consequently affected the workability where it was found that the addition of polycarboxylate ether (PCE) (superplasticisers) can drastically improve the workability, which is essential in practical applications. The abrasion was measured for specimens prepared with a high GO percentage between 0.1% to 0.3% and measured at 7 days and displayed a reduction of 70% of abraded volume at 0.3% GO.  Finally, the study presents the benefits of using GO where the reduced amount of cement usage will consequently lead to sustainable concrete construction.