Surfactant-Assisted Purification of an Impure Kaolinite Clay to Improve Its Pozzolanic Reactivity in Concrete
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 34, Issue 6
Abstract
Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) are beneficial for improving concrete’s long-term performance, durability, and environmental impact. Impure clay sources are abundant and when calcined, may serve as suitable SCMs. This study presents and evaluates a method for enrichment of low-purity kaolinite clays to improve their reactivity and performance in concrete. A byproduct clay containing 27% kaolinite, 10% muscovite, and 52% quartz was obtained by drying aggregate wash water slurry from a commercial sand and gravel pit. Several methods were evaluated for separating the clay and nonclay minerals. Among others, dispersant-assisted sedimentation, using 0.06% sodium hexametaphosphate, was shown to be effective in enriching the clay content which, upon calcination, produced a purified calcined clay (PCC) containing 64% metakaolinite, 26% muscovite, and 2% quartz. Both the PCC and the nonpurified calcined clay (CC) were evaluated for their physical and chemical properties, compliance with ASTM C618, pozzolanic reactivity, and their performance in mortar and concrete mixtures. The results show both SCMs to be valuable, whereas PCC is clearly a higher performance pozzolan.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge and greatly appreciate the funding by York Building Products and the USDOT’s Center for Integrated Asset Management for Multi-Modal Transportation Infrastructure Systems (CIAMTIS). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding entities. The authors also thank Lehigh Cement and BASF for donating materials. The authors greatly appreciate the insightful comments by Prof. Patrick Fox regarding methods for dispersion of clays. The authors thank Dan Fura, Mona Zahedi, and Zacharia Sao for their valuable help with the experiments in this study.
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Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 34 • Issue 6 • June 2022
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© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Apr 23, 2021
Accepted: Sep 21, 2021
Published online: Mar 21, 2022
Published in print: Jun 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Aug 21, 2022
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Cited by
- Jinyoung Yoon, Khashayar Jafari, Raikhan Tokpatayeva, Sulapha Peethamparan, Jan Olek, Farshad Rajabipour, Characterization and quantification of the pozzolanic reactivity of natural and non-conventional pozzolans, Cement and Concrete Composites, 10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2022.104708, 133, (104708), (2022).