Investigation of geopolymer mortar production and durability using different type of materials

In this study, the strength and durability of geopolymer mortar specimens produced using metakaolin, blast furnace slag, silica fume, expanded perlite, raw perlite as binder and sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide and sodium silicate as alkali activator were investigated. Experimental studies consist of five stages; trial production, thermal and non-thermal cured geopolymer mortar production, durability and microstructure-mineralogical composition research on thermal cured samples. 40x40x160 mm specimens were kept in the laboratory for 24 hours, then curing was done in the oven at various temperatures. Flexural and compressive strength tests were performed 24 hours after the specimens were removed from the oven. The XRD and SEM analyzes were conducted in thermally cured mixtures. In addition, non-thermal cured specimens were produced by using thermal-cured geopolymer mortar mixture ratios. After waiting for 7 days in a laboratory, flexural and compressive strength tests were performed on non-thermal cured specimens. According to the experimental results, the strength of thermal cured specimens was higher than that of non-thermal cured specimens. At the last stage, thermal cured specimens were kept in MgSO4, Na2SO4 and HCl solutions for 14 weeks and the weight loss, color change, flexural and compressive strength of the specimens were examined. The durability of thermal cured geopolymer samples kept in acid and sulfate solutions has been found to be sufficient.