Soil stabilizers are environmentally friendly engineering materials that enable efficient utilization of local soil-water resources. The application of nano-modified stabilizers to reinforce loess can effectively enhance the microscopic interfacial structure and improve the macroscopic mechanical properties of soil. This study employed nano-SiO2 and nano-CaCO3 to modify cement-based soil stabilizers, investigating the enhancement mechanisms of nanomaterials on stabilizer performance through compressive and flexural strength tests combined with microscopic analyses, including SEM, XRD, and FT-IR. The key findings are as follows: (1) Comparative analysis of mortar specimen strength under identical conditions revealed that nano-SiO2 generally demonstrated superior mechanical enhancement compared to nano-CaCO3 across various curing ages (1-3% dosage). At 1% dosage, the compressive strength of both modified stabilizers increased with curing duration. Early-stage strength differences (3 days) remained below 3% but showed a significant divergence with prolonged curing: nano-SiO2 groups exhibited 10.3%, 11.3%, and 7.2% higher compressive strengths than nano-CaCO3 at 7, 14, and 28 days, respectively. (2) The strength enhancement effect of nano-SiO2 on MBER soil stabilizer followed a parabolic trend within 1-3% dosage range, peaking at 2.5% with over 15% strength improvement. (3) The exceptional performance of nano-SiO2 originates from its high reactivity and ultrafine particle characteristics, which induce nano-catalytic hydration effects and demonstrate strong pozzolanic activity. These properties accelerate hydration processes while promoting the formation of interlocking C-S-H gels and hexagonal prismatic AFt crystals, ultimately creating a robust three-dimensional network that optimizes interfacial structure and significantly enhances strength characteristics across curing periods. These findings provide scientific support for the performance optimization of soil stabilizers and their sustainable applications in eco-construction practices.

Sulphoaluminate cement (SAC) is considered a low-carbon and energy-saving cementitious material, compared with ordinary Portland cement. However, the stabilization efficiency and improvement measures of SAC for dredged sediment (DS) are still unclear. This study used SAC as stabilizer for DS with high water content, and nanoparticles including nano-SiO2 (NS), nano-MgO (NM) and nanoAl2O3 (NA) were incorporated as nano-modifiers. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) tests were carried out to evaluate the strength development of SAC-stabilized DS (SDS) and nano-modified SDS considering multiple influencing factors. Furthermore, the micro- mechanisms characterizing the strength development of SDS and nano-modified SDS were clarified and discussed based on X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tests. The results present that increasing SAC content or decreasing water content can obviously enhance the strength gaining of SDS, while the strength reduction also occurred. Incorporating suitable nanoparticles could significantly improve the strength gaining and simultaneously avoid the strength reduction of SDS. The optimum content of single NS, NM and NA was respectively 4 %, 6 % and 6 %. Composite nanoparticles containing two types of nanoparticles also exhibit positive effect on the strength gaining of SDS, and the optimum mass ratios of NS-NM, NS-NA and NM-NA were respectively 3:7, 1:9 and 5:5. By comparison, adding 6 % NA to SDS achieved the highest strength gaining. The hydration product ettringite was mainly responsible for the strength development of SDS and nano-modified SDS, and incorporating nanoparticles especially NA contributed to the formation of a tighter structure with stronger cementation inside nano-modified SDS. A conceptual model was proposed to characterize the micro-mechanism of strength development in nano-modified SDS. (c) 2024 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Japanese Geotechnical Society. This is an open access article under the CC BY- NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).