The objective is the quantification of the durability in an acid medium of the cement obtained by the activation of blast furnace slag by means of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. The work focused on the analysis of pastes and the behaviour was compared to the Portland cement paste. For this, the techniques of measuring the acid neutralization capacity on pulverized paste and the measurement of the residual mass of paste specimens immersed in acid nitric media of a given concentration have been used. The most relevant conclusion is that alkali activated pastes have a greater durability than Portland cement pastes: C-A-S-H gels are more acid resistant than C-S-H gels.

Alkali activated cements (AAC) require an alkaline component for activating of the precursor. The manufacture of the alkaline activator (AA) involves a very important energy and raw material consumption, so that the carbon footprint (CF) of AAC is basically influenced by this factor. An alternative is the use of other materials for AA preparation. In this work an exhaustive analysis of the different alternatives is carried out: silica-based materials to prepare of alternative silicates and alkaline-based materials. CF is compared relative to commercial Portland cements, and the effect of replacing commercial reagents with alternative activators is analyzed.