Hydrothermal processing, characterization and leaching toxicity of Cr-added “fly ash-metakaolin” based geopolymer

Abstract

The detoxification and disposal of hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] is of real importance to the ecological environment protection and human being health. In this paper, Cr(VI) was in advance reduced to trivalent chromium [Cr3+] by Fe2+ and was immediately immobilized in a “fly ash-metakaolin” based (FMB) geopolymer through alkaline activation and hydrothermal processing. The phase structure and microstructure of the as-prepared detoxified Cr-added FMB geopolymer were investigated by XRD, FT-IR and SEM. The compressive strength and Cr(VI) leaching toxicity of the samples were also systematically investigated. The results showed that the phase compositions of the samples were mainly composed of amorphous phase, several weak crystalline phases of quartz, gismondite and sodium chloride after hydrothermal processing. The detoxified Cr can be fixed as the form of chemical bonding in the skeleton structure of FMB geopolymer. In addition, the compressive strength test results revealed that the compressive strength was mainly affected by the contents of Cr addition and reducing agent. Importantly, the extremely low leaching concentration of Cr(VI) suggested that the Cr-added FMB geopolymer prepared by hydrothermal processing possessed excellent Cr(VI) leaching toxicity, and the reduced Cr3+ was difficultly reoxidized to Cr(VI) after being immobilized in the FMB geopolymer.