คุณสมบัติและโครงสร้างทางจุลภาคของเถ้าลอยจีโอโพลิเมอร์ซีเมนต์ที่ใช้สารกระตุ้นด่างชนิดห้องปฏิบัติการและชนิดอุตสาหกรรม

Abstract

Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) is one of the main contributors that releases a huge amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. Moreover, intensive energy is also consumed during its production process. Alternative cementitious materials, e.g. Geopolymer, have therefore been widely studied in order to partially or totally replace the usage of that OPC. Geopolymer (GP) is a binder synthesized from the mixing of alkaline activators with any pozzolanic materials, including fly ash. At the present, most of the research works on geopolymer cement are carried out on the use of a laboratory-grade alkaline activator, due to its stability and purity. To be more suitable for practical works, an industrial-grade alkaline activator was hence used for the GP synthesis in comparison to those of laboratory-grade GP. The main aim of this research is to study the feasibility of using the industrial-grade activators in practical usages through the experimental work of physical properties, mechanical properties, micro mechanisms, and cost-effectiveness. The results show that, according to TIS standard, there are 2 categories of alkaline grades viz. grade 1 and grade 2. All of the alkaline activators under TIS provided very similar results after being used in geopolymer productions. However, it is noted that the purity of those activators was specifically higher than 98%. The overall cost of geopolymer production was significantly reduced when the industrial-grade activator is used up to 80%. Therefore, the usage of industrial-grade of alkaline activators can be used in GP production for practical work and in the field applications.