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ADVANCES IN NANO RESEARCH, vol.19, no.6, pp.583-595, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
This study explores the use of silicene as a nanoadditive in cementitious composites, focusing on its impacts on mechanical properties and microstructure. Synthesized 2D silicene was characterized using HRTEM, FTIR, and XRD techniques. To assess the mechanical performance, varying amounts of silicene (0-5 wt%) were incorporated to cement and flexural and compressive strengths were tested at 7 and 28 days. Microstructural modifications in cement paste were analyzed using SEM, 3D topographical mapping, and image processing. At 2% silicene, the increased C-S-H densification and the refined morphology were confirmed by higher pixel correlation, smoother surface topology, and enhanced statistical image analysis metrics. Mechanical results indicated that incorporating 1-2% silicene provided the optimum content, enhancing 28-day compressive and flexural strengths by up to 6.4% and 23.6%, respectively. Therefore, the results present the potential use of silicene for the first time as a novel nanoadditive for cementitious composites with experimental evidence showing improvements in both strength and microstructure, and are expected to contribute to the expanding body of literature on the use of nanomaterials in cement-based composites.