ROBINSON4	Hydration of Calcium Aluminate.
Type	Experimental
#students	1
Orientation	Why is the scientific problem of interest at all? . Calcium Aluminate (CA) is an important precursor of cement and is its fastest-reacting component when the dry cement powder is mixed. It’s hydration upon wetting is therefore a vital step in cement formation. CA is also an important catalyst substrate whose electronic properties under investigation by other theory colleagues in the LCN
How	How is the research going to shed light on the given problem?.
What	What is the specific thing that the student will do, and how does it fit inside the overall project? The project will involve X-ray diffraction measurements of samples of CA, prepared from a variety of different sources with different degrees of powder grinding and compaction. The diffraction patterns will be measured as a function of time after wetting, since the changes take several hours to materialize. The resulting changes in lattice parameter and grain size-strain changes will be logged as a function of the CA formulation.
Special Knowlegde
Supervisor	Prof Ian Robinson i.robinson@ucl.ac.uk