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The mechanism of silane-grafted sodium polyacrylate on the toughening of slag-based geopolymer: an insight from macroscopic–microscopic mechanical properties

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Abstract

To enhance the toughness of the geopolymer, silane (amino, epoxy, and methacrylate-based)-grafted sodium polyacrylate (PAA-Na) was used as additives. The interfacial features of the polymer slag paste, including the microstructure, physicochemical interaction or bonding, and mechanical properties, are the main determinants of the ductile qualities of the final concrete. This study examined how the polymer affected the evolution of the strain field, fracture characteristics, and micromechanical properties of slag geopolymer. The flexural strength and the fracture toughness of incorporating 5% 3-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane (KH570) + 2% PAA-Na increased by 296.10% and 81.20%, compared with the reference. Additionally, the addition of 5% KH570 + 2% PAA-Na expanded the distribution of the strain field of geopolymer with 2615.89 με, 2300.57 με, and 1821.54 με under the maximum load of 2833 N. The formation of hydration product C–A–S–H/(5% KH570 + 2% PAA-Na) with a high degree of polymerization had a relatively low elastic modulus of 26.17 GPa. The carboxyl and silane groups of methacrylate-based PAA-Na and KH570 were polycondensed with the hydroxyl group on the surface of C–A–S–H resulting in 12.17% Ca (COO)2 and 65.36% O–Si–O with a higher degree of polymerization. The slag-based geopolymer became more ductile as a result of the generation of the C–A–S–H/polymers, which had an organic–inorganic cross-linked network structure composed of Opolymer–Ca–OC–A–S–H and Opolymer–Si–OC–A–S–H bonds.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the financial support from the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Program No: 52225202), the National Natural Science Foundation of China-Guangdong Joint Fund (Program No: U2001223) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Program No: 52178208)

Funding

National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 52225202, Jiangxiong Wei, National Natural Science Foundation of China-Guangdong Joint Fund, U2001223, Jiangxiong Wei, National Natural Science Foundation of China, 52178208, Weiting Xu.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, Guangdong, China

    Xiaotong Xing, Beihan Wang, Hao Liu, Shaozhou Wang, Jiangxiong Wei, Weiting Xu & Qijun Yu

  2. Guangdong Research Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower, Guangzhou, 510635, China

    Shunjie Luo

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Contributions

Original draft preparation, experimentation and data analysis were done by XX; experimentation was done by BW, HL, SL, and SW; conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, and writing—review and editing, supervision, and resources were done by JW; reviewing and editing were done by WX; conceptualization and supervision were done by QY. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jiangxiong Wei.

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Xing, X., Wang, B., Liu, H. et al. The mechanism of silane-grafted sodium polyacrylate on the toughening of slag-based geopolymer: an insight from macroscopic–microscopic mechanical properties. J Mater Sci 58, 8757–8778 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-023-08591-4

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