3.2. Cement pastes Quantitative phase analysis of the cement pastes evolution makes sense only if the water contents are appropriated. This initial check is necessary as the ratio surface/volume of the pastes for powder diffraction experiment is high and it may lead to a drying effect which it would slow down/stop the hydration reactions (in this particular experimental setting). Therefore, the water contents after each hydration time were checked before collecting the powder diffraction data. In order to do so, a portion of every cement paste was heated up to 800ºC in a furnace, and the weight loss measured. Table 3 reports water losses (in weight percentage) after one, three and six months of hydration. Obtained values approximately match the amount of water initially added, 33.3 wt%, this number does not take into account the ZnO addition. Thus, ‘drying effect’ can be ruled out in the experimental conditions described in the previous section.