Sulfate Promotes Compact CaCO₃ Formation and Protects Portland Cement from Supercritical CO₂ Attack

Supercritical (sc) CO₂ in geologic carbon sequestration (GCS) can chemically and mechanically deteriorate wellbore cement, raising concerns for long-term operations. In contrast to the conventional view of “sulfate attack” on cement, we found that adding 0.15 M sulfate to the acidic brine can significantly reduce the impact of scCO₂ attack on Portland cement, resulting in stronger cement than that found in a sulfate-free system. Scanning electron microscopy revealed a decreased total attack depth in reacted cement in the presence of sulfate. With a newly defined minimum porosity term in reactive transport modeling, our model suggests that sulfate caused CaCO₃ to fill more nanopore spaces in the cement. Small angle X-ray scattering experiments also showed that sulfate can decrease the pore sizes of the carbonate layer. The results suggest that the interactions between sulfate and cement can generate a less porous CaCO₃ layer, which better resists acidic brine. Using this mechanism as a proof-of-concept, we tested the incorporation of sodium sulfate into Portland cement and synthesized new cement composites that show stronger resistance against scCO₂ attacks. These newly discovered interfacial interactions between CaCO₃ and sulfate provide new insights into engineering mechanically strong and green materials for safer GCS.