Study on microstructure and pozzolonic properties of fly ash-based geopolymer mortar containing nanometakaolin
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Date
2018
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
Geopolymerization is a process that can transform alumina-silica rich waste materials into
valuable binding materials through alkali activation. Geopolymer binding materials are
mainly composed of two components: a source material and alkaline activator liquid. The
source material for geopolymer mortar and concrete should be rich in silica and alumina. In
this study, fly ash-based geopolymer mortar was prepared by utilizing fly ash as a source
material and the mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate as alkaline activator
solution. The present experimental study shed a light on the fluctuations in compressive
strength of fly ash-based geopolymer mortar by varying the molarity (M) of sodium
hydroxide as 12M, 14M, 16M along with different proportions of nano-metakaolin (NMK)
(0% to 10% @ 2% increment by weight of fly ash). The compressive strength was checked
subsequently at
curing ages of 3, 7, 14 and 28 days. X- ray diffraction test was performed on
powder samples of fly ash, S1, S7, S13 and S15. The powder samples of S1, S7, S13 and S15
mix were collected from the remnants of geopolymer mortar specimens after 28 days
compressive strength test. It has been observed that the increase in sodium hydroxide molarity
and NMK proportion showed considerable improvement in compressive strength of
geopolymer mortar at all curing ages. Further, it has been observed that optimum gain in
compressive strength is at the 16M molarity of sodium hydroxide containing 4% proportion
of NMK. XRD results are in conformity with compressive strength test results.
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