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High-porosity geopolymer foams with tailored porosity for thermal insulation and wastewater treatment

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Abstract

High-porosity metakaolin-based geopolymer foams (GFs) were fabricated by a gelcasting technique using hydrogen peroxide (foaming agent) in combination with Tween 80 (surfactant). Slurries processed in optimized conditions enabled to fabricate potassium based GFs with a total porosity in the range of ∼67 to ∼86 vol% (∼62 to ∼84 vol% open), thermal conductivity from ∼0.289 to ∼0.091 W/mK, and possessing a compressive strength from ∼0.3 to ∼9.4 MPa. Moreover, factors that influence the compressive strength, the porosity, the thermal conductivity, and the cell size distribution were investigated. The results showed that the cell size and size distribution can be controlled by adding different content of surfactant and foaming agent. The foamed geopolymer can also be used as adsorbents for the removal of copper and ammonium ions from wastewater. The foams, due to their low thermal conductivity, could also be used for thermal insulation. It was also possible to produce geopolymer formulations that could be printed using additive manufacturing technology (Direct Ink writing), which enabled to produce components with nonstochastic porosity.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Chengying Bai gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the China Scholarship Council (CSC) (No. 201407565009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, 35131, Padova, Italy

    Chengying Bai, Giorgia Franchin, Hamada Elsayed, Alessandro Zaggia, Lino Conte & Paolo Colombo

  2. Ceramics Department, National Research Centre, 12622, Cairo, Egypt

    Hamada Elsayed

  3. College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, 410082, Changsha, China

    Hongqiang Li

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Paolo Colombo

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  1. Chengying Bai
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  2. Giorgia Franchin
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  3. Hamada Elsayed
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  4. Alessandro Zaggia
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  6. Hongqiang Li
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  7. Paolo Colombo
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Correspondence to Chengying Bai.

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Bai, C., Franchin, G., Elsayed, H. et al. High-porosity geopolymer foams with tailored porosity for thermal insulation and wastewater treatment. Journal of Materials Research 32, 3251–3259 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2017.127

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2017.127

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