Abstract—Alkali-Activated Binder (AAB) is being considered as a sustainable and greener alternative to portland cement binder due to their low carbon dioxide footprint and effective byproducts/waste better recycling capacity. For better understanding of AAB behavior the present study has conducted a number of physicochemical and microstructural characterizations of ten different combinations of AAB containing fly ash and/or slag at three different curing conditions. Results revealed the presence of Si-O-Si bonds, Si-O-Al bonds, and sodium aluminosilicate for pure fly ash based AAB. Ca2+ ions and calcium silicate hydrate were present under the influence of slag. This information will help in estimation of volume fractions of different AAB mixtures from microanalysis data. 

 

Index Terms—alkali-activated binder, degree of reaction, FTIR, isothermal calorimetry, SEM/EDS, XRD

Cite: Arkamitra Kar, Indrajit Ray, Udaya B. Halabe, and Avinash Unnikrishnan, "Physicochemical and Microstructural Characterizations of Alkali-Activated Binder Systems," International Journal of Structural and Civil Engineering Research, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 119-129, May 2016. doi: 10.18178/ijscer.5.2.119-129