Construction and Building Materials 345 (2022) 128235

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Study of water absorption and corrosion resistance of the mortar with waste
marble powder
Wenhao Song a, Qing Wang a, b, c, *, Lei Qu a, Xiaodong Li a, Shuangshuang Xu a
a
College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, China
b
College of Mechanical and Architectural Engineering, Taishan University, Taian, 271000, China
c
Institude of Advanced Engineering Materials and Structrures, Taishan University, Taian, 271000, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Adding marble powder as a substitute for fine aggregate is a well-used way to utilize waste marble, one of in­
Superhydrophobicity dustrial wastes. But, the addition of marble powder has an adverse impact on the corrosion resistance of mortar.
Waste marble powder In this study, hydrophobic mortar was prepared by adding superhydrophobic marble powder into mortar as an
Mortar
alternative material of fine aggregate. The results showed that after modification with stearic acid, the water
Water absorption
Corrosion resistance
contact angle of marble powder reached 152◦ , achieving a superhydrophobic state. When the content of
Environmentally-friendly method superhydrophobic marble powder in mortar was 20%, the mortar reached hydrophobic state with water contact
angle of 98◦ . TGA experiment demonstrated that the hydration reaction of cement was promoted by adding an
appropriate amount of superhydrophobic marble powder. In the analysis of water absorption, the addition of
superhydrophobic marble powder significantly reduced the water absorption of mortar, which can be reduced by
36.42% compared with ordinary mortar. Electrochemical experiments showed that the polarization resistance of
mortar mixed with 20% superhydrophobic marble powder was 4×10− 4 KΩ·cm2 higher than that of ordinary
mortar. It is expected that this proposed method not only utilizes waste marble powder, but also improves the
ability to prevent water penetration and corrosion resistance of the mortar used in the offshore environment.

1. Introduction researches on the preparation of concrete with waste marble powder as

Marble is one of the most widely used decorative stones [1,2]. A large
amount of solid waste of marble powder is generated in the process of
marble processing [3,4]. Waste marble powder is usually non-
biodegradable and has a low utilization rate [5]. The presence of these
fine wastes can cause environmental hazards, and may even endanger
the health of people [6,7]. The utilization of waste marble powder is of
great significance to environmentally-friendly development. To reduce
the powder waste, waste marble powder was used as an alternative
material for concrete fine aggregates. It is reported that calcium car­
bonate (CaCO3) in marble powder can react with tricalcium silicate
(C3S) in cement to improve hydration rate of cement and compressive
strength [8]. Hebhoub et al. proposed a method of preparing concrete by
using marble powder instead of quartz sand [9]. The compressive
strength of concrete prepared by this method was 23.65% higher than
that of conventional fine aggregate. M. Cinar et al. [10] found that under
the condition of constant water cement ratio, the addition of marble
powder can improve the fluidity of fresh mortar. Although the
an alternative material has been widely reported, it is reported that the
water absorption and porosity of concrete increased with increasing the
content of marble powder [11]. And corrosive substances such as
chloride ions and sulfate ions in the water can invade the concrete
through capillary pores, causing corrosion of the steel bars, which limits
the application of marble powder in mortar. Therefore, it is necessary to
propose a new way to improve the corrosion resistance of mortar with
marble waste by reducing external water infiltration.
It is reported that water absorption of mortar can be reduced by
reducing water cement ratio and adding superfine powder, such as fly
ash [12], slag [13], zeolite powder [14], metakaolin [15]. But the above
methods have limited effects and are not ideal for reducing the water
absorption of mortar. Hydrophobic treatment of mortar is an effective
method to prevent water penetration [16] by using surface treatment
[17,18] or integration of hydrophobic components into mortar [19,20].
Chatzigrigoriou et al. [21] investigated the effect of silica nanoparticle
concentration on the surface wettability of siloxane-silicon composite
films. The results showed that higher particle concentration can achieve

* Corresponding author at: College of Mechanical and Architectural Engineering, Taishan University, Taian, 271000, China.
E-mail address: qwang@sdust.edu.cn (Q. Wang).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.128235
Received 14 January 2022; Received in revised form 2 June 2022; Accepted 21 June 2022
Available online 8 July 2022
0950-0618/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
W. Song et al. Construction and Building Materials 345 (2022) 128235

superhydrophobicity and water repellency of composite films. Wong et Table 2

al [22] reported that the mortar was prone to generating micro cracks The physical and mechanical properties of waste marble powder.
and damaging the surface hydrophobic coating. The overall hydropho­ Property Numerical value
bic modification is an ideal method to improve the water repellency of
Specific gravity 2.21
mortar. Song et al [23] prepared superhydrophobic concrete by metal Specific surface area (m2/g) 2.46
mesh covering and fluoroalkylsilane modification. The results demon­ Water absorption (%) 0.32
strated that the corrosion resistance of concrete greatly increased after Loss of ignition (%) 40.53
modification by fluoroalkylsilane. Subbiah et al [24] mixed 1H, 1H, 1H,
2H-perfluorodialkyltriethoxysilane, nano silica and titanium dioxide
into cement mortar to prepare hydrophobic mortar. And the prepared
hydrophobic mortar showed low water absorption rate compared with
ordinary mortar. However, fluorine-containing hydrophobic materials
used in these studies are toxic and may have potential harm to the
environment. It is an important issue to reduce the water absorption rate
and improve the corrosion resistance of mortar mixed with marble
powder by using an environmentally-friendly method.
In this study, an environmentally-friendly method for preparing
mortar with superhydrophobic marble powder is proposed to improve
corrosion resistance of mortar mixed with waste marble powder.
Superhydrophobic marble powder was prepared by modifying marble
powder with non-toxic stearic acid. The optimum amount of stearic acid
modified marble powder was determined. And hydrophobic mortar was
prepared by partially replacing fine aggregate with superhydrophobic
marble powder. The hydration characteristics, fluidity, wettability,
water absorption and corrosion resistance of mortar were studied by
changing the proportion of super hydrophobic marble powder instead of
fine aggregate. The proposed method has potential application value for Fig. 1. The schematic of the fabrication processes of the mortar with super­
hydrophobic marble powder.
the treatment of waste marble powder and the application of mortar in
offshore environment.
by water contact angle experiment. Take a small amount of modified MP
2. Experiments and flatten it with two glass slides. During the tableting process, it is
necessary to ensure that the surface of the powder is flat and uniform,
2.1. Materials and no obvious particles can be seen. The volume of the droplets is 10
μL. Take the average of three different locations of the same sample as
The standard sand (Chinese ISO standard medium sand, particle the final result. The water contact angle test of the modified MP was
diameter is smaller than 0.6 mm) was obtained from Hangzhou carried out with an optical contact angle measuring instrument (DSA30,
Ouchuang Paint Company. The specific gravity and apparent density of Krüss).
sand are 2.54 and 2.61 g/cm3. The Portland cement (PO 42.5) was
purchased from Hongxing Building Materials Company. Stearic acid and
2.3. Preparation of mortar with superhydrophobic marble powder
ethanol were obtained from Qingdao Jingke Company. The marble
powder was obtained from Nanan Building Materials Company. Chem­
Fig. 1 shows the preparation process of hydrophobic mortar. The
ical composition and physical properties of marble powder are shown in
mortar mix ratio is shown in Table 3. Portland cement, sand and
Tables 1 and 2 respectively. The purity of the purchased reagents is
superhydrophobic marble powder (SMP) were mixed evenly in a
analytical grade and was used without further purification.
blender. Deionized water was added to the mixture and stirred in a
stirrer for 20 min. The mixed mortar was put into a culture dish and
2.2. Fabrication of superhydrophobic marble powder
vibrated in a vibration machine until no obvious bubbles appeared, then
the culture dish was removed after 1 day. The prepared mortar samples
Environmentally-friendly and non-toxic stearic acid (STA) [25] was
were cured under standard conditions for 28 days to obtain hydrophobic
used as modifier. The superhydrophobic marble powder (SMP) was
mortar. The sample was prepared in a round cake shape. Reference
prepared by chemical modification method [26]. The preparation pro­
samples were fabricated by the same procedure without SMP. Cubic
cess of SMP is shown in Fig. 1. The 0.1 g STA and 20 ml alcohol were
samples (70.7 × 70.7 × 70.7 mm3) for water absorption test and elec­
stirred to fabricate a solution in a beaker using a magnetic stirrer. The
trochemical samples were prepared according to the above method for
stirring speed and temperature were set to 200 rpm and 45 ◦ C. After STA
preparing round-cake-like samples. The cubic samples used for the water
was completely dissolved, 10 g marble powder (MP) was poured into the
absorption test were made three identical samples for each mix ratio,
STA–alcohol solution and stirred for 20 min. Then, the MP in the mixed
and the final result of each mix ratio was taken as the average of the
solution was filtered out and placed in a vacuum drying oven for 8 h at
three samples.
50℃ to prepare the modified MP. In addition, modified MP was pre­
pared by STA with 1%, 2.5%, 4%, 6%, 7%, 9% of MP mass according to
Table 3
the above method. The optimal amount of modification was determined
Mix proportions of the mortar mixed with the 0%, 5%, 10% and 20% super­
hydrophobic marble powder (SMP).
Table 1
materials M0 M5 M10 M20
Chemical composition of waste marble powder.
Sand (g) 100 95 90 80
Chemical composition (wt%)
Cement (g) 100 100 100 100
CaO MgO SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 Na2O SO3 K2O LOI SMP (g) 0 5 10 20
60.4 14.32 7.92 0.69 0.64 0.34 0.05 0.01 15.63 Water (g) 50 50 50 50

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W. Song et al.
2.4. Characterization
The surface morphology of marble powder (MP), superhydrophobic
marble powder (SMP), ordinary mortar and hydrophobic mortar were
characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM, APREO). The
chemical compositions of MP were obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD,
Rigaku Ultima IV). The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR,
Nicolet 380) was used to characterize the functional group compositions
of MP and SMP. The water contact angle of modified MP and mortar
mixed with different contents of SMP were obtained by an optical con­
tact angle measuring instrument (DSA30, Krüss).
2.5. Thermogravimetric analysis
In order to explore the effect of superhydrophobic marble powder
(SMP) on cement hydration, the thermogravimetric analyzer (Mettler
TGA 2, Switzerland) was used for measuring the content of cement
hydration products. Ordinary mortar (M0) and mortar mixed with
different contents of SMP (M5, M10 and M20) were ground into fine
powder in the grinding bowl. After grinding, 8 mg was taken for each of
the all samples and put them into the crucible of thermogravimetric
analyzer. The experiment was carried out in a dynamic atmosphere of
reactive nitrogen, and the sample was heated from 30℃ to 1000℃ at a
rate of temperature increase of 10℃/min.
2.6. Consistency test
According to Chinese Standard JGJ 70–90 [27], the consistency of
ordinary mortar and mortar mixed with different contents of super­
hydrophobic marble powder was measured. The fresh mortar was
poured into the container of a mortar consistency tester (SC-145) until
about 1 cm away from the upper mouth of the container. Subsequently,
it was tamped according to the specified test method. The stop screw was
adjusted to make the cone tip contact the surface of the mortar. Then,
release the brake screw to make the cone sink freely from the surface of
the fresh mortar for 10 s, and record the sinking depth.
2.7. Water absorption test
The water absorption rate of mortar mixed with 0%, 5%, 10% and
20% superhydrophobic marble powder (SMP) was calculated according
to the Chinese standard JC 474–2008. After 28 days of curing, as-
fabricated cubic mortar samples were dried and weighed. Then all
mortar samples were immersed completely in water. The water was
rubbed off and the weight of mortar was measured every 1 h for the first
6 h. After 6 h, the water was rubbed off and the weight of mortar was
measured every 12 h. The water absorption rate of mortar was calcu­
lated by Formula (1) [28]:
Wwet − Wdry
ω=[ ] × 100% (1)
Wdry
where Wdry represents the weight of mortar after drying. Wwet represents
the weight after immersion in water. The average of the water absorp­
tion of three samples in each group was taken as the final result.
2.8. Corrosion resistance test
Electrochemical workstation (CHI660E, Shanghai Chenhua In­
struments Company) was used to study the corrosion resistance of M0,
M5, M10 and M20. In the standard three-electrode system, the saturated
calomel electrode, platinum electrode and prepared sample were used as
the reference electrode, counter electrode and working electrode,
respectively. The mortar samples were made into a cylindrical shape and
iron nails were embedded in the mortar to make the exposed length 2
cm. In order to avoid inaccurate experimental results, the mortar
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Construction and Building Materials 345 (2022) 128235
samples were immersed in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution for 24 h before
detection [29]. The potentio-dynamic polarization curve of open circuit
potential from − 1.5 V/SCE to 0.5 V/SCE was measured at a scanning
rate of 0.5 mV/s. The corrosion current density (Icorr ), corrosion poten­
tial (Ecorr ), anode Tafel slope (βa ) and cathode Tafel slope (βc ) were
obtained through Tafel curve fitting. In addition, the polarization
resistance (Rp ) of M0, M5, M10 and M20 was calculated by Stern-Geary
equation (2) [30]:
βa × βc
Rp = (2)
2.3Icorr (βa + βc )
where Rp represents polarization resistance. Icorr represents corrosion
current density. βa and βc represent anode Tafel slope and cathode Tafel
slope respectively.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effects of the stearic acid on the wettability of marble powder
Fig. 2 shows the effect of different stearic acid (STA) contents on the
water contact angle of marble powder (MP). It can be seen that when the
STA content in MP is 6%, the water contact angle reaches the maximum,
reaching 152◦ . It means that the modified MP using 6% STA is in a
superhydrophobic state. The main chemical component of MP is calcium
carbonate [8]. During the modification of MP, Methyl (–CH3) and
methylene (–CH2) groups are not only grafted to the surface of MP to
reduce the surface energy, but calcium carbonate in MP also reacts with
STA to form calcium stearate and carbonic acid through Eq. (3) [31].
( )
2CH3 (CH2 )16 COOH + CaCO3 → CH3 (CH2 )16 COO 2 Ca + H2 O + CO2
(3)
And the schematic diagram of the reaction is shown in Fig. 3. The
resulting calcium stearate still has –CH3 and –CH2 hydrophobic groups
[32]. So even if calcium carbonate is transformed to calcium stearate,
calcium stearate will not adversely affect the hydrophobicity of MP.
When the STA content is less than 6%, the water contact angle of
modified MP is less than 150◦ . But the modified MP is still hydrophobic.
This indicates that a small amount of STA does not make MP reach
superhydrophobic state. This is because a small amount of STA cannot
completely cover the surface of the MP and the MP has high hydrophi­
licity, and the part on the surface of the MP that is not encapsulated by
the STA reduces the hydrophobic effect of the modified MP. When the
Fig. 2. The effect of different contents of the stearic acid on the water contact
angle of the marble powder.
W. Song et al. Construction and Building Materials 345 (2022) 128235

Fig. 3. The schematic diagram of the reaction between calcium carbonate and stearic acid.

content of STA in the MP reaches 7% and 9%, the water contact angles of
the modified MP are 140◦ and 123◦ , respectively. This is because
excessive STA cause agglomeration or multi-layer STA on MP surface
[33], and the carboxyl (–COOH) group contained in the agglomerated
STA on the surface of MP is considered to be a hydrophilic group [34],
thus reducing the water contact angle of modified MP. Excessive STA
also react with calcium carbonate in MP to form calcium stearate and
carbonic acid. However, the carbonic acid is decomposed into water and
carbon dioxide during the drying process of the modified MP in a vac­
uum drying oven. Therefore, carbonic acid does not affect the hydro­
phobicity of the modified MP. MP modified by 6% STA was selected to
prepare hydrophobic mortar through analysis by water contact angle of
modified marble powder.

3.2. Morphology and chemical composition

3.2.1. Morphology analysis

Fig. 4 shows SEM images of marble powder (MP), superhydrophobic
marble powder (SMP) and mortar mixed with SMP. As can be seen from
Fig. 4a) and b), the size of SMP is smaller than MP. This is due to the
strong magnetic stirring produced by the magnetic stirrer in the process
of MP modification. MP particles collide with each other, which makes
the particle size of SMP less than MP [35]. Besides, as can be seen from
Fig. 4c), SMP is well embedded in mortar and closely connected with the
surrounding of mortar. The combination of SMP, hydration products and
quartz sand causes the mortar to form a rough structure. The formation
of roughness creates conditions for the hydrophobic surface of mortar.

3.2.2. Chemical composition analysis

The XRD was carried out to study the crystal structure of marble
powder (MP). The XRD patterns of the MP are shown in Fig. 5. The XRD
patterns show that the main components of MP include calcite (CaCO3),
silicate facies wollastonite (CaSiO3) and dolomite [(Ca,Mg)SiO3]. In
addition, small amounts of quartz are also found. This analysis of crystal
structure also confirms the presence of silicon and magnesium oxide
(MgO) in marble powder.
The chemistry functional group compositions of marble powder (MP)
and superhydrophobic marble powder (SMP) were analyzed by FT-IR to
verify whether stearic acid (STA) modified MP successfully. Fig. 6 shows
the FT-IR spectra of SMP, MP and STA. The hydroxyl (–OH) correlation
band near 3347 cm− 1 [36] indicates the presence of –OH group in MP.
The absorption peak between 1170 cm− 1 and 1330 cm− 1 indicates that
STA contains carboxylic acid (–COOH) group [37]. The –OH group in
MP can react chemically with the –COOH group in STA to make STA
successfully graft on the surface of MP. In addition, both SMP and STA
Fig. 4. The SEM images of the a) marble powder, b) superhydrophobic marble
have adsorption peaks at 2929 cm− 1 and 2851 cm− 1 compared with MP. powder and c) mortar mixed with superhydrophobic marble powder under the
The two absorption peaks correspond to the asymmetric stretching vi­ magnification of 1200 × .
brations of –CH3 and –CH2 groups [33]. This indicates that the –CH3 and
–CH2 groups in STA successfully graft on the surface of the MP. The –CH3
curves and the first derivative curves (DTG) of M0, M5, M10 and M20
and –CH2 groups are considered to have low surface tension, which
after curing 28 days. As can be seen from the Fig. 7, there are three
endows the MP with hydrophobicity [25]. FT-IR spectra proves that MP
significant mass losses. A mass loss in the temperature range of 30 ◦ C-
is successful modified by STA.
200 ◦ C in the TGA experiment is mainly caused by dehydration of
chemically bound water in hydration products calcium silicate hydrate
3.3. Thermogravimetric analysis (C-S-H) and ettringite (AFt). In other words, the mass loss in the tem­
perature range of 30 ◦ C-200 ◦ C is mainly caused by the loss of crystal
Fig. 7a) and b) show that the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)

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W. Song et al. Construction and Building Materials 345 (2022) 128235

Fig. 5. The X-ray diffraction spectrum of marble powder.

Fig. 7. a) The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) curves and b) the first de­
rivative (DTG) curves of the mortar mixed with the 0%, 5%, 10% and 20%
superhydrophobic marble powder.

content, as shown in Formula (5) [40]:

Fig. 6. The FT-IR spectra of marble powder, superhydrophobic marble powder
and stearic acid.
water formed after the bound water participates in the pozzolanic re­
action [38]. In this study, decomposition quantities of C-S-H and AFt in
the temperature range of 30 ◦ C-200 ◦ C are used as indicators to distin­
guish the cement hydration degree. In addition, due to the low water
absorption of superhydrophobic marble powder, more free water exists
in the fresh mortar during the preparation of cement mortar. The
excessive free water is absorbed by the sand. However, the free water in
the sand is gradually lost during the drying process at room temperature
of the mortar. Therefore, free water in sand has little effect on the mass
loss in the temperature range of 30 ◦ C-200 ◦ C in the TGA experiment.
The second important mass loss appears between 390 ◦ C and 490 ◦ C is
attributed to the dehydroxylation of Ca(OH)2, as shown in chemical Eq.
(4) [39]:
Ca(OH)2 →CaO + H2 O (4)
[ ]
Ca(OH)2 + 2CH3 (CH2 )16 COOH→Ca OOC(CH2 )16 CH3 2 + 2H2 O (5)
Therefore, the content of Ca(OH)2 cannot be used as the index to mea­
sure the hydration degree of cement. [37].
The third significant mass loss occurs in the 550℃ to 800℃ range.
The mass loss in this range is mainly caused by the decarburization of
calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Table 4 shows the mass losses of M0, M5,
M10 and M20 in these three temperature ranges. As can be seen from
Table 4, except for M20, the mass losses of M0, M5 and M10 in the range
30℃-200℃ increase with the increase of superhydrophobic marble
powder (SMP) supplemental level. This indicates that the addition of
Table 4
The weight losses of the mortar mixed with the 0%, 5%, 10% and 20% super­
hydrophobic marble powder in different temperature.
Sample Weight loss (%)
35℃-200℃ 390℃-490℃ 550℃-800℃ Total

Usually the content of Ca(OH)2 can be used to demonstrate the M0 4.84 1.13 5.86 11.83
cement hydration degree. However, in this study, the reaction between M5 5.26 1.40 5.94 12.60
M10 6.02 1.46 6.43 13.91
stearic acid (STA) and Ca(OH)2 leads to the reduction of Ca(OH)2
M20 5.82 1.71 10.27 17.80

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W. Song et al.
SMP can make mortar produce more C-S-H and Aft and promote the
hydration reaction of cement. This is because a large amount of CaCO3 in
marble powder (MP) can accelerate the hydration reaction of generation
of C-S-H and AFt [4,5]. In addition, hydration product Ca(OH)2 further
reacts with STA to produce water, which in turn participates in hydra­
tion, making cement hydration further improved [32]. However, the
mass loss of M20 was slightly lower than that of M10 in the range of
30℃-200℃. This may be attributed to the inhibition of excessive SMP
on cement hydration of M20 [41]. Although the hydration degree of
M20 is slightly lower than that of M10, it does not decrease compared
with M0. The mass losses of all samples in the 550℃-800℃ range in­
crease with the content of SMP. This is because the main component of
MP is CaCO3, and the mass loss of CaCO3 increases with the increase of
SMP supplemental level. The chemical equation is expressed by Formula
(6) [42]:
Fig. 8. The SEM images of the mortar mixed with the 0%, 5%, 10% and 20% superhydrophobic marble powder at different scales. The surface morphology of (a)-(d)
M0, M5, M10 and M20 and (e)-(h) M0, M5, M10 and M20 under the magnification of 20,000 × and 5000 × .
6
Construction and Building Materials 345 (2022) 128235
CaCO3 →CaO + CO2 (6)
In order to further demonstrate the effect of SMP on cement hydra­
tion. Fig. 8 shows the surface morphology of M0, M5, M10 and M20. As
shown in Fig. 8a), the acicular AFt produced by the cement hydration
appears on the surface of mortar. The tricalcium aluminate (C3A) and
gypsum (CaSO4 2H2O) in the cement can react to generate AFt [23]. The
chemical equation is expressed by Formula (7):
C3 A + 3 (CaSO4 2H2 O) + 26 H2 O→AFt (7)
As can be seen from Fig. 8a)–d), the acicular AFt on mortar surface
gradually increases with the increase of SMP content. This shows that
hydration products of mortar increase with the increase of SMP content.
In addition, a higher degree of cement hydration produces more C-S-H,
W. Song et al. Construction and Building Materials 345 (2022) 128235

the porosity of cement mortar is reduced and its compactness is

improved [43]. It can be seen from Fig. 8e)–h), the black holes are pores
in the mortar surface. With the increase of SMP content, the pores on
mortar surface decrease gradually. This indicates that the hydration
degree of cement increases with the increase of SMP content. It is found
that the TGA result is consistent with that of SEM, which further verifies
the effect of SMP on cement hydration.

3.4. Consistency

Fig. 9 shows the influence of superhydrophobic marble powder

(SMP) replacement content on consistency of fresh mortar. It can be seen
that the consistency value of mortar gradually increases with the in­
crease of replacement amount of SMP. This is because thixotropy of
marble powder (MP) makes the energy consumption of mortar with SMP
flow lower than that of M0 which increases the consistency of mortar
[7]. During the mixing process, the hydrophobic groups tend to capture
air, reducing the flow resistance of the cement slurry [44]. In addition, it
is reported that the specific surface area of MP is large [45], which leads
to the adsorption of water on the surface and internal pores of MP,
reducing the free water in the mixture. After stearic acid modification,
the appearance of methyl (–CH3) and methylene (–CH2) hydrophobic
groups on the SMP reduces the adsorption of water on the MP surface
and increases the free flowing water in the mixture. With the increase of
SMP content, SMP plays an important role in reducing water adsorption
and improving free flowing water. Therefore, with the increase of SMP,
the consistency of mortar increases.

3.5. Wettability analysis of ordinary and hydrophobic mortar

Fig. 10 shows the effect of superhydrophobic marble powder (SMP)

content on the wettability of mortar. It can be seen that the water
droplets (blue-colored) can easily soak the surface of M0, illustrating
that the M0 surface is hydrophilic. The water contact angle (WCA) of the
M0 is 10◦ . The WCA of the mortar increases with the increase of SMP
content. When the SMP content is 20%, the water droplets can stand on
the sample surface and exhibit hydrophobic state with a WCA of 98◦ . But
when the content of SMP is less than 20%, the surface of mortar cannot
reach the hydrophobic state. This indicates that the addition of SMP can
reduce the wettability and improve the hydrophobicity of mortar, which
is due to the fact that the SMP as the carrier of stearic acid disperses
evenly into mortar, and the –CH3 and –CH2 hydrophobic groups endow
Fig. 10. The effect of different contents of superhydrophobic marble powder on
the water contact angle of mortar.
mortar surface with hydrophobic barrier that reduces the adhesion of
water to the mortar surface. With the increase of SMP content, more
–CH3 and –CH2 hydrophobic groups are brought into the mortar, which
enhances the repulsion of hydrophobic barrier to water. Therefore, the
addition of the SMP decreases the hydrophilicity of the mortar surface.
3.6. Water absorption

In practical engineering application, water penetration generates

Fig. 9. The effect of different contents of superhydrophobic marble powder on
consistency of fresh mortar.
distress in mortar [46], thus the ability to prevent water penetration is
one of the important properties of mortar. In this study, water absorp­
tion rate was taken as an indicator to evaluate the ability to prevent
water penetration of the M0, M5, M10 and M20. Fig. 11 shows the water
absorption rate of M0, M5, M10 and M20 within 102 h. It is obvious that
the water absorption process can be divided into two stages: rapid stage
and stable stage. The water absorption rate of the four mortar samples
increases sharply within the initial 6 h, and then it gradually leveled off.
When the content of SMP is 5% and 10%, the water absorption rate of
M5 and M10 is 9.4% and 16% lower than that of M0, respectively. When
the content of SMP is 20%, the water absorption rate of the sample
decreases from 2.16% to 1.37%, with a maximum decrease of 36.42%.
The addition of SMP significantly reduces the water absorption rate of
mortar, and the decreasing range of water absorption rate increases with
the increase of SMP content. This is because the SMP disperses in the
mortar, which makes the voids in the mortar form a water-repellent
lining [47]. In addition, hydration product Ca(OH)2 further reacts
with stearic acid to produce water, which in turn participates in hy­
dration reaction, making cement hydration further improve [32]. The
increase of hydration degree reduces the connectivity of mortar pores
and makes the structure more compact. Moreover, the result of water

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W. Song et al.
Fig. 11. The water absorption rate of the mortar mixed with the 0%, 5%, 10%
and 20% superhydrophobic marble powder.
absorption rate experiment is consistent with the result of wettability
experiment (Fig. 10). The water absorption of mortar is closely related to
the pore structure and water contact angle (WCA) of mortar surface
[48,49]. The SMP improves the WCA of mortar and optimizes the pore
structure in mortar. Therefore, the addition of SMP enhances the ability
to prevent water penetration of mortar [50].
3.7. Corrosion resistance
Steel bars in reinforced concrete in offshore environment are easily
corroded due to the infiltration of the chloride ions [51,52]. In order to
assess the corrosion resistance of mortars mixed with the 0%, 5%, 10%
and 20% superhydrophobic marble powder (SMP), the potential-
dynamic polarization test was carried out in 3.5 wt% NaCl solution.
Fig. 12 shows the potentio-dynamic polarization curves of M0, M5, M10
and M20. It can be seen that the polarization curve of mortar with higher
SMP content is located at the lower right of the polarization curve of
mortar with lower SMP content. The Tafel constants are shown in
Table 5. The corrosion potential (Ecorr ) of M0, M5, M10 and M20 are
− 0.885 V, − 0.735 V, − 0.669 V and − 0.586 V, respectively. The
Fig. 12. The potentiodynamic-polarization curves of the mortar mixed with the
0%, 5%, 10% and 20% superhydrophobic marble powder.
8
Construction and Building Materials 345 (2022) 128235
Table 5
Corrosion potential (Ecorr ), corrosion current density (Icorr ), anode Tafel slope
(βa ), cathode Tafel slope (βc ) and polarization resistance (Rp ) of the mortar
mixed with the 0%, 5%, 10% and 20% superhydrophobic marble powder.
Samples Ecorr (V) Icorr βa βc Rp (KΩ⋅cm2)
(A⋅cm− 2) (V·dec− 1) (V·dec− 1)
6 4
M0 − 0.885 1.968×10− 0.232 0.159 1.279×10−
7 4
M5 − 0.735 7.603×10− 0.189 0.179 1.760×10−
7 4
M10 − 0.669 3.206×10− 0.214 0.187 2.205×10−
7 4
M20 − 0.586 2.270×10− 0.201 0.171 5.284×10−
corrosion current density (Icorr ) of M0, M5, M10 and M20 are
1.968×10− 6 A⋅cm− 2, 7.603×10− 7 A⋅cm− 2, 3.206×10− 7 A⋅cm− 2 and
2.270×10− 7 A⋅cm− 2, respectively. It is obvious that mortar containing
more SMP has higher corrosion potential and lower corrosion current
density. High corrosion potential and low corrosion current density
represent good corrosion resistance [25,53]. The polarization resistance
(Rp ) is a significant index to evaluate corrosion resistance. As can be seen
from Table 5, the polarization resistance (Rp ) of M0, M5, M10 and M20
are 1.279×10− 4 K Ω·cm2, 1.760×10− 4 K Ω·cm2, 2.205×10− 4 K Ω·cm2
and 5.284×10− 4 K Ω·cm2, respectively. High polarization resistance
(Rp ) corresponds to good corrosion resistance [54]. It is obvious that the
addition of SMP improves the corrosion resistance of mortar, and the
corrosion resistance increases gradually with the increase of SMP con­
tent. This is because the addition of SMP reduces the water absorption
rate of mortar, improving the resistance of water infiltration, and
making it difficult for chloride ions in water to invade into the mortar
through capillary pores.
4. Conclusions
In this study, a green recycling method using waste marble powder
(MP) was proposed to improve ability to prevent water penetration and
corrosion resistance of mortar. The superhydrophobic marble powder
(SMP) was added into mortar instead of sand to improve the utilization
rate of marble powder. SMP was prepared by modifying MP with stearic
acid. Water contact angle experiment of modified MP showed that 6%
stearic acid can make MP reach superhydrophobic state with water
contact angle of 152◦ . TGA and SEM experiments showed that the
addition of SMP improved the hydration degree of cement and pore
structure. Wettability experiment showed that the water contact angle of
mortar surface increased with the replacement amount of SMP
increasing. When the content of SMP in mortar was 20%, the mortar
reached hydrophobic state with water contact angle of 98◦ . It is proved
that adding SMP improved the fluidity of fresh mortar. In the analysis of
water absorption, the addition of SMP significantly reduced the water
absorption of mortar, which can be reduced by 36.42% compared with
ordinary mortar. Electrochemical experiment showed that the addition
of SMP improved the corrosion resistance of mortar, and the corrosion
resistance increased gradually with increasing content of SMP. The
method of utilizing MP proposed in this study may has potential appli­
cation value in offshore environment, which is expected to improve the
utilization rate of marble waste and achieve environmentally-friendly
development.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Wenhao Song: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis,
Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Qing Wang:
Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing. Lei
Qu: Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing. Xiao­
dong Li: Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing.
Shuangshuang Xu: Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – review &
editing.
W. Song et al.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
The authors do not have permission to share data.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the Taishan Scholar Project of Shandong
Province (No. TSHW20130956).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.128235.
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