A Brief Introduction on the Research Status and Future Prospects on Geopolymer Concrete

Abstract

With the development of science and technology and the improvement of people’s living standards, air pollution as the main environmental problem has become increasingly prominent. Promoted by economy and technology, architecture is not only to satisfy people’s living needs, but also to integrate building functions and user experience. This leads to building energy consumption increasing, which is in line with industry and transportation, becoming the world’s major energy consumers. In the tide of sustainable development and green building, energy saving, consumption reduction, green and health have become the common pursuit of architecture. However, in the process of production and construction, the formation and release of CO2 during the calcination of ordinary Portland cement raw materials has resulted in an increase in carbon emissions. Therefore, the traditional cement materials have gradually failed to meet the concept of green building because of its high pollution and energy consumption in production. With more and more stringent restrictions on pollutant emission in various countries, the environmental cost of cement production will be higher and higher. Continuously increasing environmental costs have forced major enterprises to invest a large amount of cost in energy saving and environmental protection of products. Geopolymer concrete has also developed rapidly. With the unremitting efforts of scholars at home and abroad, after nearly 40 years of development, as a new type of green building material, geopolymer concrete has undergone a transformation from metakaolin to industrial solid waste as raw materials, with low energy consumption, low carbon emissions, easy preparation, and excellent compressive and flexural strength, acid-alkali corrosion resistance, shrinkage and expansion rate, quick drying, quick hardening and durability. In contrast, it is one of the best substitutes for ordinary Portland cement-based materials. It has broad application prospects in the fields of construction, materials, military, nuclear and other fields, and has been preliminarily applied. This paper reviews the research progress of geopolymer concrete at home and abroad, summarizes the development of raw material composition, manufacturing technology, performance and application prospects, and puts forward the problems faced by geopolymer concrete technology.