In cement-based materials heavy metals contents are rarely larger than a few hundred parts per million. Sorption isotherms of Zn(II) and Pb(II) carried out on nonhydrated (C3S) and hydrated (C-S-H) calcium silicate show that lead and zinc have different affinities for calcium silicate in a concentration range lower than the saturation concentration values of PbO and calcium zinc hydroxide. Lead has a much higher affinity than zinc for both nonhydrated and hydrated calcium silicate. Furthermore, the different retention sites of zinc and lead in hydrated calcium silicate have been investigated by 29 Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. A spectral line analysis clearly shows that structural retention mechanisms are involved for both ions. Indeed, the additional lines at -85.6 or -85.9 ppm that appear in the NMR spectra have been attributed to Q1Me sites involving Si-O-Pb and Si-O-Zn bonds, respectively.

Tricalcium silicate (C3S), the major phase of cement-based materials, contains naturally a few hundred parts per million of heavy metals. An X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) study at the Zn K-edge has been carried out to elucidate the binding mechanisms of Zn by calcium silicate hydrates, which is important to predict the long-term behavior of Zn. At low concentration, under the threshold of precipitation of the oxide, oxy hydroxide, and calcium zinc hydroxide, no retardation of the hydration of the C3S has been observed for C3S doped with Zn. A previous 29Si NMR (Moulin, I.; Stone, W. E. E.; Sanz, J.; Bottero, J.-Y.; Mosnier, J−Y.; Haehnel, C. Langmuir 1999, 15, 2829−2835) study has demonstrated that the structure of the hydrated C3S (called C-S-H for calcium silicate hydrates) does not change if Zn is present initially or not. XAS experiments have shown that Zn tetrahedra are incorporated within the matrix of C-S-H and linked directly at the end of the silicate chains through Zn−O−Si bonds. The Zn−Si distance is ≈3.1 Å. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure results have been confirmed by ab initio calculations including multiple scattering.