Synthesis and Characterization of Bamboo Ash Based Geopolymer Cement

摘要

Bamboo ash contains high silica that can be utilized as raw material of geopolymer cement. In this study, geopolymer is synthesized from co-combustion product of bamboo and kaolin with KOH solution as activator. For comparison, geopolymer is also synthesized from mixture of bamboo ashand metakaolin that combusted separately. Characterization of obtained geopolymer comprises compressive strength, phase analysis by X-ray diffraction, functional group analysis by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and microstructure by scanning electron microscopy. Geopolymer from co-combustionproduct has compressive strength which is slightly lower compared to geopolymer from mixture of bamboo ash-metakaolin; but their characteristics covering mineral phase, functional group, and microstructure are almost the same.