Abstract
The aim of the present study is to investigate the potential of sea water as a feasible alternative to produce alkali-activated fly ash material. The alkali-activated fly ash binder was fabricated by employing conventional pure water, tap water, and sea water based alkali activating solution. The characteristics of alkali-activated materials were examined by employing compressive strength, mercury intrusion porosimetry, XRD, FT-IR, and 29Si NMR along with ion chromatography for chloride immobilization. The results provided new insights demonstrating that sea water can be effectively used to produce alkali activated fly ash material. The presence of chloride in sea water contributed to increase compressive strength, refine microstructure, and mineralogical characteristics. Furthermore, a higher degree of polymerization on the sea water-based sample was observed by FT-IR and 29Si NMR analysis. However, the higher amount of free chloride ion even after immobilization in sea water-based alkali-activated material, should be considered before application in reinforced structural elements.
Highlights
Fresh water is the most consumed natural resource on the planet
The objective of this study is to investigate the properties of alkali-activated fly ash materials produced by pure water, tap water, and sea water
activated materials (AAM) samples made with all three different water types have quite similar compressive strength at 28 days, i.e., PW-51.16 MPa, TW-49.62 MPa, and SW-54.22 MPa
Summary
Fresh water is the most consumed natural resource on the planet. Two major environmental concerns being raised on use of cement are its huge carbon and water footprint [1,2]. As a countermeasure against the high carbon footprint of Portland cement, the development of alkali-activated materials (AAM) is considered as a cementless binder solution. The higher cost of production of AAM has been a limiting factor in its widespread use. One of the major subsections in higher cost of AAM is usually due to the use of alkali activating solution with highly refined chemicals. The use of pure/distilled water is a major concern due to dwindling fresh water resources. Exploring suitable replacement of pure/distilled water to produce AAM is one of the important aspects of research
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