Production of Green Free Binder From Fly Ash and Slag Industrial Waste

Abstract

Methods of recycle and utilization of industrial waste are currently being practiced in many countries in an effort to minimize industrial waste and protect the environment. In this study, the synthesis, process, composition, water absorption, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the mechanical properties of geopolymers generated from two different kinds of industrial waste (i.e. coal fly ash and furnace slag) were explored. For the two geopolymers with identical raw materials, variable parameters involved in the synthesis were examined to investigate the extent and degree of geopolymerization. Compression test was used to examine the compressive strength and durability. The compressive strength for geopolymers synthesized by each of fly ash and furnace slag were found to be 0.00714N/mm2 and 0.008692 N/ mm2 respectively. Also the result for water absorption test obtained was used to calculate the absorption percentage for both fly ash geopolymer and furnace slag geopolymer to be 0.12% and 0.01% respectively. In FTIR spectra it has seen that geopolymerisation has been achieved successfully since the major fingerprint for the geopolymer has been obtained at ~1000cm-1, 3593cm-1, 1644cm-1, 1460cm-1, 775-650cm-1, 558cm-1, and ~460cm-1.Owing to the consistent properties of both fly ash-based geopolymer and slag-based geopolymer, they were selected to be examined as construction materials used in the production of bricks, concrete for pavement, concrete for structures (e. g bridges), highway base materials. The results showed that varying the polymer composition (e.g SiO2.AL2O3 ratio), NaOH concentration, curing temperature can alter the tensile strength for tailored sensing applications for concrete structures.