TY - JOUR
T1 - The making of Class C fly ash as high-strength precast construction material through geopolymerization
AU - Zhang, Jinhong
AU - Feng, Qingming
N1 - Funding Information:
The financial support of SFAz(Science foundation of Arizona) for the work is greatly appreciated. J. Zhang is grateful to Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc. for sponsoring the Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Chair in Mineral Processing in the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering in the University of Arizona. Boral USA is greatly appreciated for providing the fly ash samples for test. Reviewers’ comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Funding Information:
The financial support of SFAz(Science foundation of Arizona) for the work is greatly appreciated. J. Zhang is grateful to Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc. for sponsoring the Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Chair in Mineral Processing in the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering in the University of Arizona. Boral USA is greatly appreciated for providing the fly ash samples for test. Reviewers’ comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Inc.
PY - 2020/10/1
Y1 - 2020/10/1
N2 - A study has been carried out to apply fly ash as a high strength, water-resistant precast construction material through geopolymerization. Experiment results show that the working conditions such as water content, the concentration of NaOH, curing temperature, and curing time significantly affect the mechanical property of geopolymer matrix. Through optimization, an above-100 MPa compressive strength has been achieved with the geopolymerization products. The optimum working conditions involves 10 M NaOH concentration, 14–15% water content, and curing at 90 °C in an oven for 1 day or at ambient condition for 3 weeks. Adding Ca(OH)2 does not help to increase the compressive strength of the specimen. Water soaking tests show that the geopolymerization product has a very high water resistance without losing noticeable compressive strength, even after a 1-month soaking time. To elucidate the geopolymerization mechanism, microscopic techniques such as SEM/EDS (scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy), XRD (X-ray diffraction) and ATR-FTIR (attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared) are also applied to investigate the microstructure, the elemental and phase composition of geopolymerization products. The findings of the present work provide a novel method for applying fly ash as a high-strength water-resistant precast construction material.
AB - A study has been carried out to apply fly ash as a high strength, water-resistant precast construction material through geopolymerization. Experiment results show that the working conditions such as water content, the concentration of NaOH, curing temperature, and curing time significantly affect the mechanical property of geopolymer matrix. Through optimization, an above-100 MPa compressive strength has been achieved with the geopolymerization products. The optimum working conditions involves 10 M NaOH concentration, 14–15% water content, and curing at 90 °C in an oven for 1 day or at ambient condition for 3 weeks. Adding Ca(OH)2 does not help to increase the compressive strength of the specimen. Water soaking tests show that the geopolymerization product has a very high water resistance without losing noticeable compressive strength, even after a 1-month soaking time. To elucidate the geopolymerization mechanism, microscopic techniques such as SEM/EDS (scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy), XRD (X-ray diffraction) and ATR-FTIR (attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared) are also applied to investigate the microstructure, the elemental and phase composition of geopolymerization products. The findings of the present work provide a novel method for applying fly ash as a high-strength water-resistant precast construction material.
KW - Alkali activation
KW - Compressive strength
KW - Fly ash
KW - Geopolymerization
KW - Water-resistant
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U2 - 10.1007/s42461-020-00283-w
DO - 10.1007/s42461-020-00283-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089482909
SN - 2524-3462
VL - 37
SP - 1603
EP - 1616
JO - Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration
JF - Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration
IS - 5
ER -