Fabrication of porous geopolymers utilizing aluminum wastes as foaming agent

Siriwan  CHOKKHA; Jiratchaya  AYAWANNA; Anurat  POOWANCUM; Thanasak  SINGLAEM; Pusit  MITSOMWANG

doi:10.55713/jmmm.v34i2.1966

Authors

Siriwan CHOKKHA School of Ceramic Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
Jiratchaya AYAWANNA School of Ceramic Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
Anurat POOWANCUM School of Ceramic Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
Thanasak SINGLAEM School of Ceramic Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
Pusit MITSOMWANG School of Metallurgical Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55713/jmmm.v34i2.1966

Keywords:

Aluminium, Geopolymer, porous materials

Abstract

Porous geopolymers (PG) are attractive due to their simple fabrication and diverse applications. This work presents a method for fabricating PG by using aluminum salt slag (ASS) as a foaming agent and metakaolin (MK) as the precursor. Sodium silicate (Na₂SiO₃) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) are used as alkali activator solutions. The results show that the PG is fabricated by using the sequence mixing method. ASS was milled to a size of 4 µm, then mixed with an NaOH solution for 30 min. After that, MK and Na₂SiO₃ solution were added. The weight ratio of Na₂SiO₃/NaOH and solid/liquid was 2.0 and 0.6, respectively. The 7-day cured PG with 5 wt% ASS achieves a strength of 15 MPa, which is close to the minimum requirement of Portland cement of 19 MPa. PG strength decreases, while setting time and pore size increase with increasing ASS content. The knowledge of this work enables the utilization of ASS as a valuable geopolymer foaming agent.

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