Structural characterization of sustainable geopolymers of steel slag LD and steel slag LF with KOH

ABSTRACT Production of composites based on derivative products of industrial wastes was presented in this study, which aggregate value to metallurgical, steelmaker wastes of the industries, and this is reversed in beneficial effects to society. Geopolymeric materials can be a solution to industrial residues generated for these sectors. The objective of study was the investigation between a solid/liquid relationship to production of specimens obtained from geopolymerization reaction, using steelmaking slags by process of Linz Donawitz (LD) and ladle furnace (LF), respectively. Samples of the residues were synthesized from an alkaline solution of 8M potassium hydroxide (KOH) in the 1.2, 1.4 and 1.6 g/v proportions (solid/liquid). Analyses of chemical composition, thermal stability, microstructure, amount of crystallinity phases and porosity were evaluated to XRF, FTIR, TGA, SEM-FEG and Archimedes’ principle obtained by reaction geopolymerization through the steelmaking slags (LF and LD), respectively. The results indicated that obtained geopolymers from steelmaking slags developed specimens with dimensional stability and high possibilities of applications, as engineering materials. The results indicate that the solid / liquid ratio is an important point in the geopolymerization process, since the 1.6 samples presented a more cohesive appearance and higher densification values than the 1.2 and 1.4 samples.