Abstract
Every year, ceramic tile factories and the iron smelting industry produce huge amounts of waste ceramic tiles and blast furnace slag (BFS), respectively. In the field of construction materials, this waste can be used as a raw material for binders, thus reducing landfill waste and mitigating environmental pollution. The purpose of this study was to mix waste ceramic powder (WCP) into BFS paste and mortar activated by sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide to study its effect on performance. BFS was partially replaced by WCP at the rate of 10–30% by weight. Some experimental studies were conducted on, for example, the fluidity, heat of hydration, compressive strength testing, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electrical resistivity, sulfuric acid attack, and chloride ion diffusion coefficient. Based on the results of these experiments, the conclusions are: (1) increasing the amount of waste ceramic powder in the mixture can improve the fluidity of the alkali-activated paste; (2) adding waste ceramic powder to the alkali-activated mortar can improve the resistance of the mortar to sulfuric acid; (3) adding waste ceramic powder to the alkali-activated mortar can increase the diffusion coefficient of chloride ions; (4) the early strength of alkali-activated mortar is affected by the Ca/Si ratio, while the later strength is affected by the change in the Si/Al ratio.
Highlights
Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is the most widely used building material in the world
During the initial hydration and induction periods, the hydration exothermic curves of all the samples were almost the same, which indicates that the dissolution of blast furnace slag (BFS) was not affected by the waste ceramic powder (WCP) content
The amount of WCP present after the induction period is inversely proportional to the rate of heat release, which indicates curing at 20 °C under the alkali excitation conditions used. This may be because the presence of WCP reduces the agglomeration of BFS
Summary
Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) is the most widely used building material in the world. The carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from OPC production accounts for approximately 6% of global CO2 emissions [1], negatively impacting the global response to climate change. The governments and industries in various countries have been encouraging the cement industry to reduce its CO2 emissions. There are two ways to reduce cement usage: the first is to use mixed cement [2,3] and the second is to use alkali-activated fly ash (FA), blast furnace slag (BFS), clay, or other aluminosilicate materials [4,5,6,7]. The use of alkali-activated materials can save energy and reduce CO2 emissions. This research aims to mix WCP into AAS paste and mortar to study its effect on performance
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