Preparation of fly ash and rice husk ash geopolymer

Abstract

The geopolymer of fly ash (FA) and rice husk ash (RHA) was prepared. The burning temperature of rice husk, the RHA fineness and the ratio of FA to RHA were studied. The density and strength of the geopolymer mortars with RHA/FA mass ratios of 0/100, 20/80, 40/60, and 60/40 were tested. The geopolymers were activated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH), sodium silicate, and heat. It is revealed that the optimum burning temperature of RHA for making FA-RHA geopolymer is 690°C. The as-received FA and the ground RHA with 1%-5% retained on No.325 sieve are suitable source materials for making geopolymer, and the obtained compressive strengths are between 12.5-56.0 MPa and are dependent on the ratio of FA/RHA, the RHA fineness, and the ratio of sodium silicate to NaOH. Relatively high strength FA-RHA geopolymer mortars are obtained using a sodium silicate/NaOH mass ratio of 4.0, delay time before subjecting the samples to heat for 1 h, and heat curing at 60°C for 48 h.