Experiment on Activated Carbon Manufactured from Waste Coffee Grounds on the Compressive Strength of Cement Mortars

Sukjoon Na,Sungmin Youn,Sanghoon Lee

doi:10.3390/sym13040619

Abstract

In this paper, we performed an experiment with activated carbon manufactured from waste coffee grounds on the compressive strength of normal cement mortars. The activated carbon reinforcement was manufactured from waste coffee grounds, and the collected coffee grounds were then transformed into activated carbon granules through the physical activation process. The activated carbon/cement composites were prepared by mixing cement with activated carbon granules with the weight fractions of 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 5%, and 10% cement. The experimental results show that adding activated carbon up to 1.5 wt% increased the early strength of cement mortars. Furthermore, we found that the composites incorporated with a small amount of activated carbon (≤1.5 wt%) had higher compressive strength over the curing period than the normal cement without activated carbon. We believe that these results would potentially have commonalities with morphological symmetry phenomena that occur on the surfaces of activated carbon granules.

Highlights

IntroductionPotential solutions include utilizing waste materials (e.g., fly ash and slag), saving materials in design, recycling concrete, and maximizing concrete performance under the given resources
The results verify that the compressive strength of normal cement mortar increased as the curing time increased
The effect of activated carbon manufactured from waste coffee grounds on the strength of normal cement mortar was studied

Summary

Introduction

Potential solutions include utilizing waste materials (e.g., fly ash and slag), saving materials in design, recycling concrete, and maximizing concrete performance under the given resources. The use of waste materials as an additive or a substitute for concrete components to enhance concrete performance has recently received considerable attention, owing to waste management. Blending recycled coarse aggregates generally promotes the flowability of concrete while satisfying the design compressive strength. Blended marble and limestone dust as additives with the concrete mixture. They found that those waste materials increased the compressive strength of normal concrete and promoted the resistance to sodium sulfate. In recent years, activated carbon has received favorable attention as a reinforcement of cement-based composites.

Results

Discussion

Conclusion