TY - JOUR A1 - Vogler, Nico A1 - Lehmann, Jens A1 - Bohlmann, Tatjana A1 - Kronemann, Jens T1 - Gel-bound Colourants as a Substitute for the Sprayed Application of pH-Indicator Solution JF - American Journal of Civil Engineering N2 - In general, pH-sensitive colorants such as phenolphthalein are applied on freshly split surfaces of building structures to determine the state of carbonation. For years, it has been known that the aerosols of phenolphthalein are suspected of being carcinogenic. Hence, more work has currently being done on alternative indicators for the use in research and the use on construction sites. Over the past years, mainly pH indicators from other research areas and natural dyes were investigated for their usability to cementitious systems. This paper presents the experimental results of using phenolphthalein solution bound in agar-agar gel. This gel-bound indicator allows the future use of the already known phenolphthalein dye without the health hazards for the user. To demonstrate the flexibility of the gel-bound colorant, different application forms of the indicator were carried out and assessed. In addition, the results obtained by the different methods were statistically evaluated to ensure validity. The accuracy of the results was confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis and IR spectroscopic studies as reference methods. It has also succeeded to demonstrate the comparability of the results achieved by the gel-bound colorant with the results of the common sprayed application method. As an additional gain in knowledge, comparative results of indicator tests, TGA analysis, and FTIR investigation are shown. KW - Concrete Carbonation KW - Gel-bound Colorants KW - pH Indicator KW - Thermal Gravimetric Analysis KW - FTIR-ATR Measurements PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-551493 UR - http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ajce DO - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20221003.16 SN - 2330-8729 SN - 2330-8737 VL - 10 IS - 3 SP - 135 EP - 144 PB - Science Publishing Group CY - New York, NY AN - OPUS4-55149 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -