Abstract
Alkali aluminosilicate polymers, or ‘geopolymers’, a family of minerals with cementitious properties, constitute a promising future source of materials for the construction industry. These polymers combine certain properties of ordinary cements, traditional ceramic materials and zeolites.29Si, 27Al and 23Na MAS-NMR spectroscopy were used to characterise the reaction products resulting from the alkali activation of a type F fly ash. Specifically, analysis focused on the influence of the degree of polymerisation of the activating solution. The results obtained show that the nature of the alkali activator plays an important role in the kinetics, structure and composition of the gel initially formed. The alkaline aluminosilicate gel formed exhibits short-range order, with the silicon appearing in a wide variety of Q4(nAl) (n = 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4) environments.
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