Fundamentals of Geopolymer Cementitious Materials

A detailed review of the preparation of geopolymer-based materials is presented in this chapter. A literature survey is also presented to determine the progress made in geopolymer production from waste materials such as clays, silica fumes, both low-carbon and high-carbon fly ash, red mud, both high-carbon and low-carbon blast furnace slag, rice husk ash, zeolites, argon oxygen decarburization (AOD) slag, bottom ash, pond ash, etc. Different methods adopted to prepare geopolymer-based materials are given, including curing, sol-gel, deep mixing, hydrothermal synthesis and low-temperature calcination methods, mechanical activation (MA), blended mineral admixtures, an alkaline solution of thermally activated silica-alumina-bearing mineral with additives such as calcium carbonate; and an innovative in-situ co-reticulation process, an innovative method to reclaim the waste molding sands containing water glass with "dry" or "wet" activation of inorganic binder in waste molding sand mixtures physically hardened by microwave radiation, and sintering. The chapter also looks at the large amount of data available on the effect of variables on geopolymer production. Moreover, the formation of geopolymer structure is discussed along with the molecular structures of geopolymer materials. Finally, how the polymerization process used in condensation polymerization is similar to the process of Polycondensation polymer.