Course Details

Chemistry of Building Materials

Academic Year 2025/26

NCB008 course is part of 1 study plan

​ NPC-SIK Summer Semester 1st year

Course Guarantor

prof. RNDr. Pavel Rovnaník, Ph.D.

Institute

Institute of Chemistry

Language of instruction

Czech

Credits

4 credits

Semester

summer

Forms and criteria of assessment

course-unit credit and examination

Offered to foreign students

Not to offer

Course on BUT site

https://www.vut.cz/en/students/courses/detail/295882

Lecture

13 weeks, 2 hours/week, elective

Syllabus

  • 1. Kinetics of chemical reaction. Thermal balance of chemical reaction.
  • 2. Methods for the investigation of building materials - chemical and structural analysis.
  • 3. Water – structure, ionization, pH, substances content in water, and their effect on building materials. Porosity of building materials. Transport of water and salts.
  • 4. Chemistry of gypsum and anhydrite binders, properties of hardened gypsum, and degradation.
  • 5. Chemistry of lime binders, plasters and mortars, degradation, renovation of plasters.
  • 6. Degradation of ceramics – composition, porous structure, crystallization pressure of salts in pores. Chemistry of glass, and corrosion.
  • 7. Chemistry of cement and concrete. Composition, properties, hydration, hydration heat, water-to-cement ratio.
  • 8. Chemical admixtures affecting the properties of building materials.
  • 9. Degradation processes in concrete caused by atmosphere and aggressive solutes. Chemical properties of aggregates in concrete, degrading processes. Stability and degradation of fibre reinforcement.
  • 10. CHemical and electrochemical properties of metals, corrosion of metals. Corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete.
  • 11. Chemical composition of wood, wood properties, degradation of wood.
  • 12. Chemistry of polymers based on carbon and silicon chains. Degradation of polymers.
  • 13. Basic mechanical properties of building materials in relation to the chemical basis.

Exercise

13 weeks, 2 hours/week, compulsory

Syllabus

  • Introduction to practice, safety of laboratory work, fire prevention
  • Salinity of masonry, adjustment of salts and deep of penetrating into testing material
  • Water, determination of ions in water, argentometric determination of chlorides
  • Binders, adjustment the type of binder according to present elements, deetrminatio of sulphste in solution
  • Analysis of cement, decomposition of cement, determination of MnO in blended cement
  • Analysis of cement, determination of CaO and MgO, decomposition of sample for determination of sulphates, determination of SiO2
  • Analysis of cement, determination of Fe2O3 and Al2O3, filtration of precipitate of BaSO4
  • Analysis of cement, determination of TiO2 and P2O5, annealing of precipitate of BaSO4
  • Corrosion of concrete, determination of Ca(OH)2 in cement pastes, adjustment of carobated and non-carbonated cement paste
  • Determination of aggressive CO2 in water, determination of ammonium ions in water
  • Silicium, preparing of silicium using magnesium as reducing agent, solubility of silicium in alkaline solutions, preparation of borosilicate glass
  • Supervision of protocols, credit.