Two millenia after the Romans invented opus caementicium (cement), it is the most commonly used material worldwide. With annual production of >10 billion tonnes, Portland cement is the worlds most widely manufactured material - more recently as dental & medical materials. Despite these extreme levels, cement remains one of the most complex and least understood systems, particularly at the atomic level.Previous NCS measurement using VESUVIO on glass cements has revealed that cementation is not monotonic. Evidence suggests that the oscillatory trends previously observed could be present in all cementation and gelation type reactions, providing a time dependent metric for rational modulation of material properties.We propose measurements on portland and novel geopolymer cements, towards establishing an industrially impacting metric for characterisation and avenue to cement optimisation.
