Abstract Engineering cement-based composites requires a comprehensive understanding of the microstructure features governing macroscopic properties. This work aims to foster the latest chemo-mechanical technique to disclose the micro-mechanical properties of intimately intermixed phases. Considering a typical Portland cement paste as a study case, we compared the so-far developed nanoindentation analysis methods with a new automatic method coupling Nano-Indentation and Quantitative Energy-Dispersive Spectroscopy (NI-QEDS). Besides evincing advantages and disadvantages of previous methods, the NI-QEDS analyses enabled distinguishing chemical phases having strongly overlapping mechanical properties. Results suggested the presence at the sub-micrometre scale of extra calcium, aluminum and sulfur into (or in the vicinity of) outer C–S–H. The quantitative chemistry allowed identifying the rare occurrence of nanoindentation volumes located on “pure” phases (e.g., inner C–S–H). Finally, NI-QEDS provided new knowledge on cement pastes' micro-chemo-visco-mechanical properties and showed to be a powerful tool for investigating even more heterogeneous systems.

中文翻译：

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纳米压痕和定量能量色散光谱 (NI-QEDS) 的自动耦合：一种揭示水泥浆微化学机械性能的综合方法

摘要 工程水泥基复合材料需要全面了解控制宏观性能的微观结构特征。这项工作旨在促进最新的化学机械技术，以揭示紧密混合相的微观机械特性。考虑到典型的波特兰水泥浆作为研究案例，我们将迄今为止开发的纳米压痕分析方法与结合纳米压痕和定量能量色散光谱 (NI-QEDS) 的新自动方法进行了比较。除了证明以前方法的优点和缺点外，NI-QEDS 分析还能够区分具有强烈重叠机械性能的化学相。结果表明在亚微米级存在额外的钙、铝和硫进入（或附近）外部 C-S-H。定量化学允许识别位于“纯”相（例如，内部 C-S-H）上罕见的纳米压痕体积。最后，NI-QEDS 提供了关于水泥浆微化学粘度机械特性的新知识，并证明是研究更多异质系统的强大工具。