Enhancement of the properties of fly ash based geopolymer paste by incorporating ground granulated blast furnace slag

Abstract

Research efforts have been made continuously to establish fly ash based geopolymer as an alternative binder material for the production of fresh concrete because production of Ordinary Portland Cement degrades the environment by huge emissions of carbon-di-oxide and also by consuming lot of natural resources. But most of the study reveals, fly ash based geopolymer paste needs more time to get set when it is cured at ambient temperature. As a result, it is quite impractical to use fly ash based geopolymer paste as an alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement in faster construction. In this study, an effort has been made to enhance the properties of fly ash based geopolymer paste by incorporating ground granulated blast furnace slag at various percentage levels. Microstructure of the geopolymer paste is studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy. Result of this investigation shows that significant improvement on setting time and compressive strength can be obtained by adding ground granulated blast furnace slag in the mixes.