In situ growth of carbon nanotubes/carbon nanofibers on cement/mineral admixture particles: A review

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and carbon nanofibers (CNFs) are beneficial reinforcement materials for high-performance and multifunctional cement-based composites. However, it is difficult to uniformly disperse CNTs/CNFs in cement-based composite during the composite fabrication process due to CNTs/CNFs aggregation. The in situ growth of CNTs/CNFs on cement/mineral admixture provides a new method to solve this issue. This article summarizes the methods and theories of in situ growth of CNTs/CNFs on cement/mineral admixture, including chemical vapor deposition method and microwave irradiating conductive polymers method. Properties of the cement-based composites made from the CNTs/CNFs-grown cement/mineral admixture are presented. The issues about the in situ growth of CNTs/CNFs on cement/mineral admixture that needed to be further studied are discussed.