Date Available

4-13-2011

Year of Publication

2010

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Document Type

Thesis

College

Arts and Sciences

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

Dr. John Selegue

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to produce a “greener” cement from granulated ground blast furnace slag (GGBS) using non-Portland cement activation. By eventually developing “greener” cement, the ultimate goal of this research project would be to reduce the amount of Portland cement used in concrete, therefore reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere during cement production.

This research studies the behavior of mineral binders that do not contain Portland cement but instead comprise GGBS activated by calcium compounds or fluidized bed combustion (FBC) bottom ash. The information described in this paper was collected from experiments including calorimetry, which is a measure of the release of heat from a particular reaction, the determination of activation energy of cement hydration, mechanical strength determination, and pH measurement and identification of crystalline phases using X-ray diffraction (XRD).

The results indicated that it is possible to produce alkali-activated binders with incorporated slag, and bottom ash, which have mechanical properties similar to ordinary Portland cement (OPC). It was determined that the binder systems can incorporate up to 40% bottom ash without any major influence on binder quality. These are positive results in the search for “greener cement”.

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