Nanoporous carbons have been prepared through a selective etching reaction, performed by halogenisation of aluminum carbide. The structures obtained can be controlled by varying the chlorination temperature. The unique set of nanocarbons obtained include nanoporous amorphous structures, the nanobarrel structure and a nanographitic structure as chlorination temperatures were increased from 400 °C to 1000 °C. The synthesis process gives a pure product with high yield, and may be scaled up to produce bulk amounts

Typically, the changes of the phase compositions due to the chemical attack are studied in-situ only by chemical analysis or microscopy. In this study, the chloride transport and binding in the cement matrix in different cementitious materials was analyzed by synchrotron based X-ray diffraction (SyXRD) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Sample materials consisting of cement paste were embedded in high concentrated sodium chloride solution over different time spans. Afterwards, the phase and chemical compositions were determined. The high spatial resolution and the information about the chloride distribution offer a detailed view of chloride binding in the cement matrix and allow the conclusions about the degradation mechanisms. The results are discussed related to the influence of different supplementary cementitious materials on the damaging mechanism. © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS.