Combination between organic polymer and geopolymer for production of eco-friendly metakaolin composite

Abstract

The target of the present paper is to polymerize ethylene glycol monomer in geopolymer binder forming hybrid organic and inorganic polymer composites. Ethylene glycol monomer used in different ratios from 0.5 to 2% from the total binding weight, where as geopolymer composites made from metakaolin activated by 45% sodium silicate. The aim of the present paper is to study the enhancement in produced organic–inorganic composites by measuring compressive strength, flexural strength and tensile strength, while tracing and identification of the formed aluminosilicate composites using FTIR (Fourier transformer infra red), XRD (X-ray diffraction), DTG (differential thermogravimetry), TGA (thermogravimetric analysis) and SEM (scanning electron microscopy). Results showed an enhancement in mechanical characteristics with about more than 100% gain in compressive strength as compared with control geopolymer mix; however, the gain in flexural and tensile strength increases by about 50% on using 1.5% ethylene glycol after 90 days of curing; also, there is better modification in microstructural properties by using ethylene glycol up to 1.5%. However, the total weight loss by burning the sample up to 1000 °C using DTG is lower than 7.5% for all mixes which is much lower than the pure organic polymer which acquires total loss up to 80% up on firing to 1000 °C.