Congratulations to Franco Zunino for winning The Cement and Concrete Research Le Chatelier Distinguished Paper Award for his article "Stability of hemicarbonate under cement paste-like conditions." This award is in honor of the pioneering contributions made by Henri Louis Le Chatelier to chemical sciences and in particular to mineral binders, and work that has followed in his footsteps.
Zunino's study demonstrates that hemicarbonate is significantly stabilized by the incorporation of foreign anions in its structure, resulting in the formation of solid solutions. It argues that in modern cement paste, hemicarbonate is stabilized by the sulfates and/or chloride in the pore solution, and that the basal spacing of the hemicarbonate-Friedel's salt solid solution can be used to calculate its stoichiometry only when measured in wet conditions.