Properties of ceramic tile waste based alkali-activated mortars incorporating gbfs and fly ash

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental findings of a study on the performance of waste ceramic powder (WCP) as binder on the mechanical and microstructure properties of alkali activated mortars (AAMs) containing ground blast furnace slag (GBFS) and fly ash (FA). In this study, the ternary blend was activated with low concentration of alkaline solution (4 M). WCP was kept with high content of 50%, 60% and 70% for the total binder. After casting operation, the specimens were cured at ambient temperature of 27 °C and tested at eight different ages of 1, 3, 7, 28, 56, 90, 180 and 360 days. Microstructure tests such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were conducted to evaluate the effect of high content of WCP on the formulation of sodium aluminium silicate hydrate (N-A-S-H), calcium aluminium silicate hydrate (C-A-S-H) and calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) gels. Test results indicated that high volume WCP produced environmental friendly alkali activated mortars with compressive strength higher than 70 MPa at age of 28 days. The results also showed that the workability and setting time of alkali activated mortars enhanced with the increase in WCP content.