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Geopolymers and other alkali activated materials: why, how, and what?

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Abstract

This paper presents a review of alkali-activation technology, moving from the atomic scale and chemical reaction path modelling, towards macroscopic observables such as strength and durability of alkali-activated concretes. These properties and length scales are intrinsically interlinked, and so the chemistry of both low-calcium (‘geopolymer’) and high-calcium (blast furnace slag-derived) alkali-activated binders can be used as a starting point from which certain engineering properties may be discussed and explained. These types of materials differ in chemistry, binder properties, chemical structure and microstructure, and this leads to the specific material properties of each type of binder. The secondary binder products formed during alkali-activation (zeolites in low-Ca systems, mostly layered double hydroxides in alkali-activated slags) are of significant importance in determining the final properties of the materials, particularly in the context of durability. The production of highly durable concretes must remain the fundamental aim of research and development in the area of alkali-activation. However, to enable the term ‘highly durable’ to be defined in a satisfactory way, the underlying mechanisms of degradation—which are not always the same for alkali-activated binders as for Portland cement-based binders, and cannot always be tested in precisely the same ways—need to be further analysed and understood. The process of reviewing a topic such as this will inevitably raise just as many questions as answers, and it is the intention of this paper to present both, in appropriate context.

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Acknowledgments

The work described here has been made possible through collaboration with many people over a number of years. A good share of the credit for the RILEM Robert L’Hermite Medal certainly belongs to the colleagues and students with whom I have worked over the past decade, and so I thank them for their input and hard work which has enabled me to write this review. First and foremost, I owe a major debt to Professor Jannie van Deventer, who has been my mentor, supervisor and longstanding collaborator (from both academic and industrial perspectives), and has given his unstinting support in every aspect of my career. My students and postdocs, I hope you have been able to learn from me some fraction of the amount I have learned from you, and I hope that my descriptions of your work have done justice to it. My collaborators and colleagues, in Melbourne, Sheffield, and all over the world (including RILEM TCs 224-AAM, 238-SCM, and 247-DTA), who have shared time, expertise, ideas and data with me, this has always been a pleasure. Among these people, particular thanks are due to Dr Peter Duxson, with whom discussions have always been thought-provoking, productive and fun, and have led (directly or indirectly) to much of the science described in this review. To those who have given me opportunities—and particularly the chance to take on a Chair at the University of Sheffield—I am truly grateful. To the agencies who have provided financial support, particularly the Australian Research Council through numerous projects, and also Zeobond as a key industry partner in much of my work, I hope that I have made good use of the money! Finally, and most importantly, to the person who proofreads and reality-checks all of my papers, my wife, collaborator, inspiration and partner in everything I do, Dr Susan A. Bernal—it’s all for you.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sir Robert Hadfield Building, Mappin St, Sheffield, S1 3JD, UK

    John L. Provis

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Correspondence to John L. Provis.

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This paper corresponds to the 2013 Robert L’Hermite Medal lecture of Prof. John L. Provis at the 2013 RILEM Annual Week in Paris, France. He was awarded the medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the research and development of geopolymers and other construction materials. His research centres on the development, characterisation and exploitation of advanced and non-traditional cement and concrete technology. Many of his projects involve alkali-activated and geopolymer binders for use in infrastructure and waste immobilisation applications.

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Provis, J.L. Geopolymers and other alkali activated materials: why, how, and what?. Mater Struct 47, 11–25 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-013-0211-5

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