Mechanical Properties and Mechanisms of Polyacrylamide-Modified Granulated Blast Furnace Slag–Based Geopolymer
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 31, Issue 1
Abstract
Geopolymers are an environmentally friendly cementitious materials, which have the advantages of high strength, good durability, and stability; however, geopolymers also have some limitations, such as strong brittleness and low toughness. In this experiment, polyacrylamide (PAM) was used to improve the toughness of granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS)–based geopolymers. The water/binder (W/B) ratio was fixed at 0.5; the content of alkaline activator () was fixed at 6.0 wt%; and the alkaline activator modulus was fixed at 0.8. The effect of PAM (0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 3.0, and 5.0 wt%) was investigated with respect to compressive strength, flexural strength, and bending toughness of GBFS-based geopolymers. To determine the reason the bending toughness of GBFS-based geopolymers can be improved with PAM, microscopic test methods such as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were also performed. With an increase in PAM content, the compressive strength, flexural strength, and bending toughness of GBFS-based geopolymers increased initially and then decreased. The compressive strength, flexural strength, and bending toughness of GBFS-based geopolymers reached their maximum value when PAM content was 0.5 wt%. Compared to the control specimen, flexural strength/compressive strength ratio of PAM-modified samples showed an increase of 28.3%. The bending toughness of PAM-modified samples increased by 70.4%. Results of microscopic tests proved that PAM elicited a multiscale modification effect on GBFS-based geopolymers at molecular and submicroscopic levels.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Project Nos. 2018-CL-A1-33 and 20181049701003), the Science and technology basic work of China (Project No. 2014FY110900), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No. 51402226) for their support.
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Published In
Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 31 • Issue 1 • January 2019
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 10, 2018
Accepted: Jul 12, 2018
Published online: Oct 31, 2018
Published in print: Jan 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Mar 31, 2019
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