Eco-sustainable alkali activated brick using municipal incinerated ash
S. Revathi, K. Vidhya
Abstract
Geopolymers are a new generation of inorganic polymers finding large potential in infrastructure applications. The present research article deals with the manufacture of innovative alkali activated bricks from municipal incinerated (MI) ash. The eco-sustainable alkali activated bricks are produced with fly ash and municipal incinerated ash as precursor materials with alkali activators such as sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate. A comprehensive study has been performed to investigate the suitability of MI ash for geopolymer brick production. The mineralogical characterizations of the brick samples were performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) techniques. The mechanical and durability performance of the innovative alkaline activated bricks are explored, and the results demonstrated that the possibility of using MI ash up to 40% contributed to good mechanical and durability properties in the bricks. The geopolymer brick from MI ash paves a way for a greener building product by abating their disposal problem and reducing carbon footprint remarkably.