Preparation and Microstructural Analysis of Smelting Waste Non-ferrous Metal Slag Geopolymer

The geopolymer samples were prepared with smelting waste slag of non-ferrous metal as the raw material and water glass as the activator. The effect of modulus of water glass and water binder ratio on the compressive strength was studied. The results show that the strength of the geopolymer activated by water glass with modulus of 1.1 and water binder ratio of 0.28 can maintain an increasing trend in the 90 curing days. Through the analyses with XRD, SEM (EDS), and FTIR, the main reaction products are found to be geopolymer gels, which bond the crystalline minerals to provide strength. The molecular chains of amorphous phase in slag become shorter after depolymerization-polycondensation.