Abstract
This study aims to produce mortar through the addition of oil palm shells (OPS)-activated charcoal and oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) hydrochar, which has high mechanical properties, self-healing crack capabilities, and pollutant adsorption abilities. The cracking of mortar and other cementitious materials is essential in anticipating and reducing building damages and ages due to various reasons, such as chemical reactions, foundation movements, climatic changes, and environmental stresses. This leads to the creation of self-healing mortar, which is produced by adding reductive crack size materials to form calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and silicate hydrate (3CaO.2SiO2.2H2O, CSH). One of these materials is known as activated charcoal, which is obtained from oil palm shells (OPS) and oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) fibres. This is because the OPS-activated charcoal minimizes crack sizes and functions as a gaseous pollutant absorber. In this study, activated charcoal was used as fine aggregate to substitute a part of the utilized sand. This indicated that the utilized content varied between 1–3 wt.% cement. Also, the mortar samples were tested after 28 days of cure, including the mechanical properties and gaseous pollutant adsorption abilities. Based on this study, the crack recovery test was also performed at specific forces and wet/dry cycles, respectively, indicating that the mortar with the addition of 3% activated charcoal showed the best characteristics. Using 3% of the cement weight, OPEFB hydrochar subsequently varied at 1, 2, and 3% of the mortar volume, respectively. Therefore, the mortar with 3 and 1% of OPS-activated charcoal and OPEFB hydrochar had the best properties, based on mechanical, self-healing, and pollutant adsorption abilities.
Highlights
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.The main problems associated with the use of cementitious materials are cracks, which causes damage to buildings, reduce construction age, and increase maintenance costs
The results showed that the highest value obtained for 1% hydrochar mortar was 30.63 MPa, indicating that the compressive strength value in this study was relatively in line with date palm fibre, which was treated with the immersion in a solution of NaOH and Ca (OH)2, at 12–32 MPa [32]
Mortar properties are influenced by the presence of oil palm shells (OPS)-activated charcoal and empty fruit bunches (EFB)
Summary
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.The main problems associated with the use of cementitious materials are cracks, which causes damage to buildings, reduce construction age, and increase maintenance costs. The existing mortar crack is found to occur due to the tensile strength being much lower than the compressive strength [1]. This indicates that the recovery processes are being carried out through direct resealing with certain materials or self-healing, where capable elements are retrieved during the composite manufacturing process [2]. Materials are widely used for construction needs, with the existence of knowledge on concrete and mortar, which differences are based on the composite elements. More focus is directed towards the effect of applying natural materials on the mechanical properties, self-healing crack capability, and pollutant adsorption abilities of mortar
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