Mechanical and microstructural study of rice husk ash geopolymer paste with ultrafine slag

This paper presents the mechanical and microstructural properties of the geopolymer paste which was developed by utilizing the industrial by-products, rice husk ash (RHA) and ultra-fine slag. Ultra-fine slag particles with average particle size in the range of 4 to 5 microns. RHA is partially replaced with ultra-fine slag at different levels of 0 to 50%. Sodium silicate to sodium hydroxide ratio of 1.0 and alkaline liquid to binder (AL/B) ratio of 0.60 is taken. Setting time, compressive, flexural strengths were studied up to the age of 90 days with different concentrations of NaOH. The microstructure of the hybrid geopolymer paste was studied by performing the SEM, EDS, and XRD on the broken samples. RHA based geopolymer paste blended with ultrafine slag resulted in high compressive and flexural strengths and increased setting times of the paste. Strength increased with the increase in NaOH concentration at all ages. The ultra-small particles of the slag acted as a micro-filler into the paste and enhanced the properties by improving the CASH, NASH, and CSH. The maximum compressive strength of 70MPa was achieved at 30% slag content with 16M NaOH. The results of XRD, SEM, and EDS at 30% replacement of RHA with ultra-fine slag densified the paste microstructure.