Effects of Non-thermal Plasma Treatment on the Geopolymerization of Kaolin Clay

B Sop-Tamo,G Kamgang-Youbi,L N Tchadjié,J Baenla,J B Tarkwa,Hasan Assaedi,Thamer Alomayri,J P Kamseu Mogo

doi:10.1007/s12633-021-01134-z

Abstract

Kaolin samples obtained from Cameroon were used to produce geopolymer binders. Prior to its application, the raw kaolin samples were activated through the gliding arc plasma treatment using both spatial post-discharge and direct mode. A mixture of sodium hydroxide and silicate was used as the alkaline solution. In order to study the influence of the modifications generated by the gliding arc plasma treatment on the geopolymerization process, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimeter and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were carried out. In addition, scanning electron microscopy, nitrogen physisorption and compression tests analysis were also carried out on the resulting geopolymer samples to access their mechanical performance. The results showed that the geopolymerization process was not completed at the curing temperature of 90 °C. Plasma spatial post-discharge mode treated kaolin led to 20.48% increase in compressive strength when compared with the geopolymer prepared from raw kaolin.

Highlights

In many field activities and in particular civil engineering, binders, and especially cements are of great interest because they form with water or with an alkaline solution, a plastic paste capable of agglomerating by hardening various substances
Exposure of kaolin clay material to gliding arc plasma caused an overall increase in FTIR absorbance peaks of the clay material, such as lower bands around the values 1622 and 1391cm-1 due to the breakdown of certain Si–O–Si and Si–O– Al chemical bonds and the appearance of new peaks in the hydroxyl region
The results obtained in this work show that using kaolin samples, the geopolymerization process was initiated it remains unfinished at the curing temperature at which we operated

Summary

Introduction

In many field activities and in particular civil engineering, binders, and especially cements are of great interest because they form with water or with an alkaline solution, a plastic paste capable of agglomerating by hardening various substances. The cement production leads to 5–8% of CO2 global emissions and constitutes a major drawback from an environmental point of view [2]

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