The limestone, as an economically sustainable and easily available basic raw
material, is frequently utilized in the building industry for resolving of
the environmental protection issues. The limestone is incorporated in a
cementitious system either by grinding with cement clinker, or by blending
with the binder during concrete production. The employing of powdery
limestone as partial cement replacement gives the construction composites
with properties comparable to that of conventional concrete. The study of
limestone thermal behavior and its chemistry is crucial for the prognosis of
the designed composites properties. In this work, the instrumental techniques
(atomic emission spectroscopy, differential thermal and thermo-gravimetric
analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) and the Principal
component analysis were employed to discriminate and classify 22 limestone
types. The PCA statistical method, as a means of spectra and experimental
data fingerprinting, grouped the samples in a multi-dimensional factor space
producing four graphical prognosis - one for each instrumental method. DTA/TG
peak values varied the most in a short range between 830-870?C, while FTIR
spectra showed the highest diversity in the 867-887 cm-1 and 1237-1647 cm-1
ranges. This research was governed by an idea to reveal whether it is
possible to differentiate various limestone types and to predict the
possibility of their employment in construction composites on the basis of
the results of instrumental and mathematical analyses. [Project of the
Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant
no. ON 172057, III 45008, TR 31055, TR 34006, and TR 34013]