Thermal Effect on Flexural Strength of Geopolymer Matrix Composite with Alumina and Wollastonite as Fillers

Abstract

The addition of alumina and wollastonite in geopolymer resin is expected to increase the thermal behavior of the geopolymer matrix composite. In this work, fine granules of solid alumina and acicular wollastonite used as filler were mixed with a fly ash-based geopolymer resin paste to form a composite matrix. The filler additions were 2.5% to 10.0% of the total weight with sodium silicates and sodium hydroxide used as activators. The results showed that the addition of alumina and wollastonite as filler did not have much effect on the flexural and compressive strength of the geopolymer matrix composite at room temperature. Wollastonite fiber, which was added in the form of a short-sized fiber, only produced a very small bridging effect. Nevertheless, alumina filler composite showed a good result after being exposed to a temperature at 200°C, although the strength was reduced as the temperature increased. Moreover, wollastonite fibers only managed to maintain 50% of their flexural strength after 2 hours exposure at a temperature of 200°C due to the damage of the wollastonite fiber.

Influence of the wollastonite and glass fibers on geopolymer composites workability and mechanical properties

“…Moreover, glass fibers have been used with alkali-activated composites based on fly ash [30,31] to improve the flexural modulus, thus modifying the post-cracking response by enhancing the ductility of the material after the first crack. Needles of wollastonite have been used as well, in order to enhance the mechanical performance of hydrated cements [32], alkali-activated mortars [33] or composites [34]. According to a review on fiber-reinforced metakaolin-based geopolymer composites [18], the compressive and flexural strength values range from 14 to 109 MPa and from 3 to 14 MPa respectively, depending on the matrix and the nature and quantity of the fibers used.…”

Adaptation of the geopolymer composite formulation binder to the shaping process

“…In order to compare these data and those of the literature, the reinforcement amounts (%w) of glass fibers and wollastonite from previous work on cement [35,55,56,57] alkali-activated materials [19,36,58,59,60] and geopolymers [61,62] were compared with the domains of shaping of the composite M16WyGz (Figure 7). The compositions of the literature are mainly located in the castable or mixed domains.…”

The Effect of Preparation Technology and the Complexing on the Service Properties of Self-extinguishing Copper(II) Coordinated Epoxy-amine Composites for Pouring Polymer Floors

“…In addition to aesthetic attractiveness and cost, performance properties play an important role in the choice of the polymers used to pour floors (Nurjaya et al, 2015).…”