Evaluation of the role of Cetyltrimethylammoniumbromide (CTAB) and Acetylenicglycol (AG) admixture on fly ash based geopolymer

Abstract

Alkali activation of fly ash with proper mix design and correct formulations can exhibit very good strength and chemical resistance and other potentially valuable characteristics similar or even better than conventional Portland cement. Utilization of fly ash activated system as binder material in construction industry can limit the consumption of virgin materials required for the production of cement as well less energy intensive process in the manufacturing stage leads to lower greenhouse gas emission. Goeopolymeric products with characteristic properties can be achieved on a laboratory scale level by optimizing the process conditions using selected source material with the addition of admixture. On contrary, Usage of variable source material in a large scale preparation, issues like flow ability, control of setting time are always present that need to be studied. This study was conducted on leaching of fly ash by hybrid activator solution namely sodium silicate, sodium hydroxide, for preparing geopolymer matrix wherein geopolymer (GPC) mortar was made with the addition of organic admixture Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), Acetylenic glycol (AG) as flow ability enhancer with dosage ranging from 0-2% by keeping the Liquid/Solid as 0.45.The Compressive strength of the mortar in the order 30 Mpa was achieved with good flow property by the addition acetylenic glycol and the zeta potential value was found to be similar in the order of control specimen(-15.4mv). Analysis of SEM microstructure of the matrix revealed that binding gel of type Na-S-H are found to be more on AEG added matrix than that of CTAB.