Processing and applications of geopolymers as sustainable alternative to traditional cement

摘要

The development of sustainable construction and building materials with reduced environmental footprint, in both manufacturing and operational phases of material life cycle, is attracting increasing interest. In this frame, new geopolymer-based materials seem very attractive, due to their good mechanical properties, chemical and fire resistance. In addition, as compared to the ordinary Portland cement, they are characterized by higher environmental sustainability, in terms of reduced production energy requirements and lower CO_2 emissions. In this paper we have prepared different geopolymer materials starting from a calcined clay. Pastes and mortars showed a good mechanical strength. Starting from these samples, materials characterized by different macroscopic features were developed, including a lightened concrete, a multilayer sample and macroporous materials at increasing pores amount and size, with the aim of investigating the applicability of geopolymers towards different building components.