Analysis of Chemical and Mechanical Properties of Geopolymer Cement

Due to increasing of industrial waste product, as well as environmental concern on conventional cement due to CO2 emission, a new green cement technology has been developed known as geopolymer cement. However, it is crucial that geopolymer cement can meet the specific requirement to ensure its efficiency in downhole condition. Industrial by products were utilized as raw material for geopolymer cement in this project. They are Fly Ash (FA) and Microwave Incinerated Rice Husk Ash (MIRHA). Numerous studies have been done on the application of fly ash in geopolymer cement and it has been proven that fly ash is a good raw material which can form geopolymer cement with high compressive strength. However, due to abundance of rice husk as waste materials that is not widely utilized, there are also several studies on the employment of MIRHA in geopolymer cement. Yet the contribution of MIRHA in compressive strength of geopolymer cement has not been extensively studied. Hence, this project studies the compressive strength of geopolymer cement composed of fly ash, and MIRHA as raw material and the effect of addition of different percentage of silica fume towards the strength development. Microstructure studies also were conducted to confirm the result of compressive strength of the sample by using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscope (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM).