Development of Polymeric Concrete for Sustainable Futures

Environmental issues resulted from cement production have become a major concern today. World’s plan to develop sustainable futures encourages people to limit the usage of this construction material that can damage environment quality. Cement replacement material was proposed to partially replace cement portion in concrete. However another material is needed to fully replace cement function; hence can reduce cement demand throughout the world. Geopolymer is a part of inorganic polymer material that has similar bonding function like cement in concrete. It consists of alkaline solutions and geological source material. Alkaline liquids used in this research are 8M sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution and sodium silicate (NaSiO2
)solutions, while source materials are fly ash and microwave incinerated rice husk ash (MIRHA). Three different curing regimes, namely hot gunny curing, ambient curing, and external exposure curing, were applied to obtain suitable method that was suitable with cast in situ application. Geopolymer concrete samples were tested on their compressive strength and microstructure properties. It was found that external exposure curing had the highest compressive strength compared to other two curing methods. Scanning electron microscopy analysis also showed better improvement in interfacial transition zone for concrete sample with external exposure curing.