Making lightweight concrete - by coating expanded polystyrene beads with surfactant solution and dry cement before mixing with concrete mix

摘要

Lightweight concrete is made by coating expanded polystyrene beads with an aq. surfactant soln. (10-40%) and then coating the wet beads with dry cement. The coated beads are then mixed with cement, sand and water to form a concrete mix. The surfactant is pref. a mixt. of a cationic surfactant (ethoxylated quat. ammonium cpd. with 10-18C alkyl) and non-ionic surfactant (ethoxylated prim. or sec. alcohol). The beads are more uniformly distributed in the concrete.