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Natural Pozzolan-based geopolymers for sustainable construction

Environmental Earth Sciences volume 75, Article number: 1110 (2016) Cite this article

Abstract

The study presented herein evaluates effects of alkaline activator (sodium hydroxide) concentration, solution (sodium hydroxide solution)-to-binder ratio (S/B), and curing condition on properties of alkali-activated natural Pozzolan mortars (geopolymers). To this end, several mixtures were made having natural Pozzolan as their binder with different concentrations of alkaline activator solution including 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, and 12.5 molar (M) at various S/B of 0.50, 0.54, and 0.58. The produced mortars were cured at 80 °C under three different conditions of exposed (dry), sealed (wrapped), and moist until testing at ages of 1, 3, and 7 days. Multiple tests were conducted on the alkali-activated natural Pozzolan mortars including flow spread, compressive strength, flexural strength, PH measurement, absorption, and rapid chloride migration. Test results showed the sealed curing condition to be most conducive to strength gain, whereas the exposed curing condition caused dehydration and/or carbonation within the samples and the moist curing condition did not allow for full removal of excess water resulting in reduced bond formations. The moist oven-cured mortars produced higher strength than the exposed cured mortars when alkaline activator with lower molarities was used. The opposite trend was observed for the higher molarities mortars. The compressive and flexural strengths, absorption, and depth of penetrated chloride improved when NaOH concentration increased and S/B decreased.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partially funded by NSF Grant # EPS-0814372 “Nevada Infrastructure for Climate Change Science, Education, and Outreach.” Authors would like to thank the National Science Foundation for their support. Thanks are also extended to the Nevada Cement Company for donating natural Pozzolans used in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction, University of Nevada Las Vegas, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV, 89154-4015, USA

    Nader Ghafoori, Meysam Najimi & Brittany Radke

Authors
  1. Nader Ghafoori
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  2. Meysam Najimi
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  3. Brittany Radke
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Meysam Najimi.

Additional information

This article is part of a Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on “Geomaterials used as construction raw materials and their environmental interactions” guest edited by Richard Přikryl, Ákos Török, Magdalini Theodoridou, and Miguel Gomez-Heras.

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Ghafoori, N., Najimi, M. & Radke, B. Natural Pozzolan-based geopolymers for sustainable construction. Environ Earth Sci 75, 1110 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5898-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5898-5

Keywords

  • CO2 emission
  • Sustainability
  • Geopolymers
  • Natural Pozzolan
  • Sodium hydroxide concentration
  • Solution-to-binder ratio
  • Curing condition

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