Influence of hydroxypropylguars on fresh state properties of cement-based mortars

International audience ; Nowadays, modern factory-made mortars are usually formulated with polysaccharides in order to improve water retention capacity, homogeneity and workability. Among all polysaccharides, hydroxypropylguars have received very scant attention in technical literature. This paper shows that hydroxypropylguars give excellent water retention properties to the mortar. However, as with cellulose ethers that are the reference for this type of admixtures, these molecules delay the hydration of cement. Moreover, the effect of the polymer predissolution in the liquid phase has been studied. There is a real impact of the predissolution on the water retention capacity of the mortar and the cement hydration kinetics.