Investigation of using waste marble powder, brick powder, ceramic powder, glass powder, and rice husk ash as eco-friendly aggregate in sustainable red mud-metakaolin based geopolymer composites

Abstract

Geopolymers are an important composite material alternative to cement with high CO2 emission, which allows the use of waste materials in its structure. However, which waste material contributes to the geopolymer composite structure to what extent is still an ongoing research area. This study has been prepared to contribute to closing the gap in this field. In this study, industrial waste materials (waste marble powder (MP), waste brick powder (BP), ceramic waste powder (CW), waste glass powder (GP), and rice husk ash (RHA)) were used 25%, 50%, and %75 percentage as aggregate instead of recycled concrete (RC) on red mud-metakaolin based geopolymer mortars. Mechanical properties (ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), splitting tensile, compressive, and flexural strengths), physical properties (void ratio, water absorption, unit weight, and workability properties), abrasion test, and microstructure analyzes (SEM-EDS and XRD) were performed. The highest compressive strength results were in seen the 25% brick powder substitution, with an increase of 74.01% compared to the control sample. Also, the compressive strength results increased in the case of increasing the use of ceramic waste. High silica and alumina contents in both materials were effective in these cases. In terms of the abrasion test, the highest performance was seen as a 49.2% decrease in the mass loss in 75% marble powder replacement. As a result, substitute materials have shown a successful performance, creating significant potential in the production of a sustainable geopolymer.