Application of Clay - Based Geopolymer in Brick Production: A Review PDF

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Advanced Materials Research Vol. 626 (2013) pp 878-882 Online available since 2012/Dec/27 at www.scientific.net © (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.626.878 Application of Clay - Based Geopolymer in Brick Production: A Review M. T. Muhammad Faheem1,a, A. M...

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Advanced Materials Research Vol. 626 (2013) pp 878-882 Online available since 2012/Dec/27 at www.scientific.net © (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.626.878

Application of Clay - Based Geopolymer in Brick Production: A Review M. T. Muhammad Faheem1,a, A. M. Mustafa Al Bakri1,b, H. Kamarudin1,c, M. Binhussain2,d, C. M. Ruzaidi1,e, A. M. Izzat1,f 1

Centre of Excellence Geopolymer & Green Technology (CEGeoGTech), School of Material Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), P.O. Box 77, d/a Pejabat Pos Besar, 01007 Kangar, Perlis Malaysia 2

King Abdul Aziz City Science & Technology (KACST), P.O Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

a

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

d

Keywords: Geopolymers; Bricks; Clay; Kaolin;

Abstract.This paper reviews and summarizes the current knowledge and application of clay as a geopolymer material in production of geopolymer brick. As we understand, the nature of source materials give a significant impact to the strength of geopolymer. For example, geopolymer made from calcined source material such as calcined kaolin, fly ash, ground granulated blastfurnace slag (GGBS) and others produce a higher compressive strength compared to geopolymer made from non-calcined source material such as kaolin. This paper is reviewing on the suitability of clay application as a geopolymer material in geopolymer brick production. The chemical composition of clay-based material show high content of SiO2 and Al2O3 compound which is similar to the fly ash. Clay-based Geopolymer showed a good potential in a brick production. Introduction Recent years have seen a great development in a novel family of building materials—geopolymer cement around the world. It is due to the environmental issues that pressured the industries to provide a products and materials that are more environmental friendly. The concrete that being used nowadays is produced using a highly energy intense product that generate CO2 as a binder which is ordinary Portand cement (OPC) [1]. There are a lot of studies that suggest the possibility of CO2 mitigation in cement industry by implementing the advance technology in cement production technology [2-4]. This can possibly reduce the CO2 emissions level. It is commonly accepted that geopolymer binder is a potential material to be part of the solution due to its lower CO2 emissions compared to OPC concrete [1]. J. Davidovits had introduce geopolymer which is a type of three-dimensional CaO-free aluminosilicate binder, which was developed in the late 1970s [5]. Geopolymer are ceramic materials that are produced by alkali activation of aluminosilicate raw materials, which are transformed into reaction product by geopolymerization in a high pH environment and relatively low curing temperature. Because of the low energy requirements, their inflammability at high temperatures, and resistance to acid attack, made these novel products more eco-friendly than Portland cement which being supported by previous research [6-10].

All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP, www.ttp.net. (ID: 58.27.57.125, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Kangar, Malaysia-12/12/13,11:03:35)

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Originally, Davidovits use kaolinite in his research on geopolymers. Later, others aluminosilicate source such as calcined clays [11-13], fly ash [14-15], and slag [16-17] is being investigated. The use of these geopolymer materials in brick production can support construction sustainability and also contributes to the development of the construction industry in terms of producing more efficient materials that are environmental friendly. Related atmospheric emissions from the combustion of natural gas for heat which reinforce the idea that emphasis should be placed on reducing energy consumption by reducing the environmental impact of brick manufacturing [18]. In this paper, we will be discussing about the effectiveness of using clay as a geopolymer materials in brick manufacturing by using geopolymerization process which is based on its physical and mechanical properties. Materials And Methods This paper is about utilization of clay-based geopolymer raw materials to be used as a binder in brick making process by using geopolymerization process. M. B. Diop [19] in his paper suggesting to mix niemenike clay with different concentration of Sodium Hydroxide in order to form a thick paste before the brick were being compressed with a manual hydraulic press until water began to flowing out of the sample. Before the clay is being used, it needs to be ground to less than 250 µm. Then the sample of brick needs to be cured with a temperature around 40 to 120 degree Celsius for varying period of time. The entire brick sample was left overnight at room temperature before they were cured. Then it will be tested for the mechanical behavior of the samples. Mostly other researchers mix the geopolymer material with alkaline activator which consist sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate before being used with aggregate as a concrete or mortar [20- 22]. Different from M. B. Diop, Claudio Ferone et al. using weathered coal fly ash as a geopolymer raw material add sodium silicate in his geopolymer mixing in order to hardened product with a good physic-mechanical properties based on the basis of literature data [23]. There is no fine aggregate is being added in both mixing. However, the application of clay based geopolymer in brick production was very limited. It is due to the lower compressive strength value. Generally, the clay was mixed with other pozzolanic material such as lime or cement in order to produce a clay-based brick. J.E. Oti et al. produce a clay brick by without firing it by adding quicklime, hydraulic lime or Portland cement in her mixing [24]. The binder used is around 1.4% to 5.5 % of the total weight. According to European standard [25], in the production of masonry unit, there are some values of physical properties such as compressive strength, size and density that need to be considered. Thus, it is important to make sure that the end product which is geopolymer based brick should be made with high technological and commercial confidence. Result And Discussion Chemical composition. Table 1 below shows the chemical composition of Niemenike Clay which M. B. Diop had use in his brick production research and local Malaysia Kaolin as a comparison. The main content of both materials is Silica Oxide (SiO2) which is about 54% for Malaysia Kaolin and 57% for Niemenike clay. The content of alumina oxide is also high for both materials. There is no CaO content in both of the clay materials. J. Temuujin et al. in his paper suggested that CaO will improve mechanical properties of geopolymers [26]. Table 1: Chemical composition:Neimenike Clay [19], Malaysia Kaolin [27]. Component Malaysia Kaolin [%] Niemenike Clay [%]

Si02 54.0 57.0

Al2O3 31.7 25.6

K 2O 6.05 0.8

TiO2 1.41 0.48

Fe2O3 4.89 4.78

MnO2 0.11 0.03

ZrO2 0.10 -

LOI 1.74 11.01

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Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM). The microstructure of Neimenike clay compared with Malaysia kaolin is shown in Figure 1 below. Both materials have plate-like structure. The particles appeared as plate-like structure which contributed smaller surface area for the geopolymerization process.

(a)

(b)

Figure 1: SEM Micrograph of (a) Malaysia Kaolin [27] and (b) Niemenike Clay[19]. Compressive Strength. Currently there are still no studies about a compressive strength of Malaysia kaolin to be used as a geopolymer brick but Y. M. Liew et al. had use it in a production of geopolymer concrete paste [27]. Based on her research, the range of compressive strength of the geopolymer concrete paste is around 6 Mpa and below. This value can be use as a measure to the strength of the brick that might be produce. M.B. Diop at al. found that the strength of calcined clay activated with 12M NaOH solution cured for 12 hours can reach strength 13.4 Mpa, which is twice the strength obtained with the natural clay which is 6.1 Mpa. The author found that the calcinations process of the clay is unfavorable to compressive strength, regardless of the concentration. For the geopolymer brick made from weathered coal fly ash, the compressive strength can reach up to 40 Mpa. This result was obtained from the study that has been done by Claudio Ferone et al. where the result also revealed that the curing conditions affect the result of compressive strength very strongly. Conclusion As a conclusion, the application of clay to be us as a raw geoplymer material in brick production by using geopolymerization process is applicable. Nevertheless, the compressive strength that can be achieved is lower compared to geopolymer brick that are using other geopolymer materials such as fly ash as a raw geopolymer material. This may be due to the CaO content that affects the mechanical properties of the geopolymer materials. This material has cementing properties that can be applied in the cementing industry. The utilization of this material can save energy and resources and it also environmental friendly. Acknowledgement King Abdul Aziz City Science and Technology (KACST) funded this study. We would like to extend our appreciation to the Green Concrete @UniMAP and all the people who helped to ensure that the successful completion of this study.

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[21] D. Hardjito, C.C. Cheak, and C.H. Lee Ing, “Strength and setting time of low calcium fly ashbased geopolymer mortar”, Mpdern Applied Science, Vol.2(4), pp. 3-11. 2008. [22] A. M. Mustafa Al Bakri, H. Kamarudin, M. Binhussain, I. Khairul Nizar, A. R. Rafiza, and Y. Zarina, “Microstructure study on optimization of high strength fly ash based geopolymer,” Advanced Materials Research, Vols. 476-478, 2012, pp. 2173-2180. [23]Claudio Ferone, Francesco Colangelo, Raffaele Cioffi, Fabio Montagnaro, Luciano Santoro, 2011. Mechanical performances of weathered coal fly ash based geopolymer bricks.International Conference on Green Buildings and Sustainable Cities. Procedia Engineering 21, 745-752. [24] J. E. Oti, J. M. Kinuthia, 2012. Stabilized unfired clay bricks for environmental and sustainable use. Applied Clay Science 58, 52-59. [25] European Standard EN 771-1:2003/A1:2005. Specification for masonry units. Part 1: Clay masonry units. [26] J. Temuujin, A. van Riessen, R. Williams. Influence of calcium compounds on the mechanical properties of fly ash geopolymer pastes. Jaurnal of Hazardous Materials 167 (2009) 82-88. [27] Liew Y. M. et al. Influence of solidification process on calcined kaolin geopolymeric powder. Adv Mater Res 2012;479–481:286–91.

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Application of Clay - Based Geopolymer in Brick Production: A Review 10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.626.878 DOI References [12] Granizo ML, Varela MTB, Martinez-Ramirez S. Alkali activation of metakaolins: parameters affecting mechanical, structural and microstructural properties. J Mater Sci 2007; 42: 2934–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10853-006-0565-y [13] Heah CY et al. Study on solids-to-liquid and alkaline activator ratios on kaolin based geopolymers. Constr Build Mater 2012; 35: 912–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2012.04.102 [15] Temuujin J, Riessen AV, MacKenzie KJD. Preparation and characterisation of fly ash based geopolymer mortars. Constr Build Mater 2010; 24: 1906–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2010.04.012 [16] Yunsheng Z et al. Synthesis and heavy metal immobilization behaviours of slag based geopolymer. J Hazard Mater 2007; 143: 206–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2006.09.033 [17] Chang JJ. A study on the setting characteristics of sodium silicate-activated slag pastes. Cem Concr Res 2003; 33: 1005– 11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0008-8846(02)01096-7...