A Study on Marble-Based Geopolymer

Institute of Mineral Resources Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei City, Da’an Dist., 106 Taiwan, R.O.C.

^* Corresponding author: twcheng@ntut.edu.tw

Abstract

Cement manufacturing is one of the highest carbon dioxide emission industries. It releases 880 kg carbon dioxide for every ton of cement produced. In Taiwan, the carbon dioxide emission from cement industry is more than 10 million tons per year. The development of low carbon dioxide emission green cement can be a solution to replace part of OPC for civil applications and reduce carbon dioxide emission. Geopolymer consists of a polymeric Si–O–Al framework, similar to zeolites which can be formed by mixing aluminosilicate materials, sodium hydroxide and sodium silicates. Geopolymers have advantage of high compressive strength, fire resistance, low shrinkage, acid resistance and low thermal conductivity. In this study, marble-based geopolymer was studied by mixing marble powder, blast furnace slag (BFS) and alkali solution. Physical/mechanical properties of marble-based geopolymer prepared with different marble/BFS weight ratio and SiO₂/Na₂O mole ratio were tested. The experimental results indicated that the compressive strength of marble-based geopolymer can reach 44 MPa within 120 minutes setting time. The microstructure of geopolymeric green cement contains C-S-H gel and aluminosilicate in the framework. According to the experiment results, marble-based geopolymer has the potential to be used as a new civil engineering construction material.