Chemical and Physical Characterization of Fly Ash as Geopolymer Material

Abstract

Research on finding suitable cement substitute material becomes massive due to environmental effect. Geopolymer as inorganic material is potential to be the smart solution to overcome global warming issue. Fly ash is a waste material rich in silica and alumina becomes popular raw material to produce geopolymer. The best properties ofgeopolymer paste come from the high quality of fly ash. Therefore, it is important to investigate various types of fly ash and geopolymer properties. Their chemical and physical properties characterized by XRF, pH value, XRD and SEM. The results showed that type of fly ash depended on amount of Si-based of Ca-based compound which consisted of spherical morphology. Geopolymer paste produced from the ash with different compound has bulky and irregular shape morphology. The pH value of each ash has also a correlation with the setting time of fresh paste.