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101.8 grams of 14-molarity solution Lye (sodium-hydroxide). (This means 41g of lye and 60.7 grams of water). Be
careful when mixing this together. Start with a plastic cup of water, 60.7g of it, and then add about half the lye. It will
heat the water almost to the boiling point. If you see bubbles forming that's okay, just stir and let it cool. Once it has
cooled a good bit, say 5 minutes or so, add the rest of the lye and stir until it dissolves as well. If you dump in all the
lye at once it can boil and sputter and send caustic lye back at you, and it will burn you. If it burns you, wash the
spot with water for 10 min. And be careful, because lye can burn your skin in such a way that it will do damage long
before you feel any pain, so be careful.
This is the only dangerous step in making geopolymer concrete, and it's about as dangerous as making soap, which also
uses lye.
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1848 gram of mixed aggregate (sand and 7mm gravel). One point on this, we began ommitting the rock and using
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still obtained a high strength value, but I suggest you play around with the ration of rock to sand and
try to find a good medium point. We cut back on aggregate compared to the first pour because the first pour was
extremely rocky and wouldn't even fill the mold we had. The first pour had 1715g of rock and 734.3g of sand. This
mix with all sand and no rock came out very beautiful and strong, but it could be made stronger with some rock
most likely. This would be a good thing to try out. Also, this rock and sand should be measured out at its wet-weight,
not dry weight. So make sure it always has some water in the bag to keep it hydrated. Otherwise dry aggregate will
suck water out of the alkali-activator and possibly cause a failed pour when you begin to mix them together. One
more note, do not use beach sand, you want some kind of granite-sand or mason-sand. Don't use beach sand, it
results in significant strength loss.
1013g of type-F, low-calcium flyash.
41g of water. One thing we learned was to not play around with the water ratio. You can't make geopolymer thicker
or thinner by adding or taking away water like you can with normal concrete. Instead this will cause the chemistry to
fail. The chemical ratios have to be kept fairly consistent. That's why I say try nylon fibers as a thickener rather than
trying to play with water ratios. We did a lot of playing with water ratios and had a lot of failed pours that failed to
set-up.
Mixing Process:
1. Measure out and combine the damp aggregate (sand, rock) into a plastic bucket (do not use metal bucket).
Measure 41g of water add it in. Mix the sand and rock for several minutes until everything is well uniformly wet
and mixed using a mechanical stirrer of some sort.
2. Measure 60.7g of water, put into a plastic container.
3. Measure 41g of solid lye pellets. Don't leave these standing in the air too long because they will absorb moisture
from the air and become gummy.
4. Pour about half of the lye into the water and mix with a wooden stirrer. Allow the lye to cool down as you mix,
then add more lye until it absorbs. Be careful not to add so quickly that it begins to first bubble and then boil. You
should be able to feel the heat on the outside of the container and can use that to judge. If mixing large batches
of lye solution you will need to mix these the day before and allow them to come down to room temperature
before continuing. Cover the lye solution and continue.
5. Measure out 255.7g of liquid waterglass (36.5% sodium-silicate, 62.5% water). Immediately add it to the cooled
lye-solution and stir together.
6. Pour the solution into the aggregate and mix for several minutes with a mechanical mixing paddle. We used an
aluminum-tipped mortar mixing paddle on the end of a drill. The lye will off-gas hydrogen if it comes into contact
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with just about any metal, but we felt that once it was mixed in with the flyash and aggregate that it wouldn't be
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metal. The alternative was to try to coat the paddle somehow, and that wasn't a good option
as we thought it would surely wear off into the mix. A tough and strong plastic-coated paddle would be idea.
7. Spray the molds with Pam cooking spray as the mold release (or use any similar mold release, but don't use
petroleum jelly, it's been known to interfere chemically with geopolymer).
8. Let it sit for a few minutes, then pour the mix into a mold. I suggest wooden or silicone molds that can survive the
heat of curing. We used 2.5" cube molds made of wood and previously coated in silicone caulk. Note: ideally you
would de-gas the mix in a vacuum chamber to get rid of any entrained air before pouring.
9. Cure the geopolymer in a pre-heated oven at no more than 200° Fahrenheit. Any hotter and it will negatively affect
the strength. At 200°F it cures in 4 hours. At 85°F it will cure in 24 hours. Any analogous range and length between
works too (ie: you could try 120° for 12 hours). It does not need to be covered or kept wet while curing.
10. Remove from heat when the time is up and remove from the mold (further heat will not hurt or help it). It is now
cured and has about 90% of its final strength. Within 3 days it will have 95% of its full strength, and 99% within a
month.
On the sidebar you can find details for ordering a flyash type-F sample from Boral free of charge. However if you're
ever in doubt there's a simply test you can perform. If the flyash is high calcium, it will heat up when mixed with a
little bit of water. Calcium compounds in both concrete and type-C high-calcium flyash are what cause both concrete
and type-C flyash to cure themselves by generating their own heat, what's known as the heat of hydration.
If you add a bit of water to a good amount of flyash (say the size of a cup) and it stays completely cool, then you have a
low-calcium type-F flyash that is possibly a good fit for this recipe.
If you have a choice, the lower the calcium content the better. 2% calcium flyash is about as good as can be hoped for. I
performed this recipe with 5% flyash that was available to me.
Good luck!
And just so there's no confusion, I am releasing this info under the MIT license:
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) <2014> <Michael Eliot, Andy Thomas>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this document, to deal in the document
without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
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and/or sell copies of the document, and to permit persons to whom the document is furnished to do so, subject to the
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following conditions:
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The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the
Software.
THE DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN
NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
DOCUMENT OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE DOCUMENT.
SORT BY BEST
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How would one measure that? How does the food preparation industry deal with this? They still deal in cups of flour, no?
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The flyash powder itself is exceptionally fine, much like baking flour.
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You have the moles listed, and in any periodic table you can look up the molecular masses of the compounds.
The unit for molecular mass is grams per mol [g/mol].
Let's take the Lye solution:
101.8g of 14-molarity NaOH
The "molarity" refers to how many mols are available per unit of volume, commonly in Liters [mol/L].
According to the periodic table, Sodium's (Na) molar mass is 22.99 g/mol, and Hydroxide's molar mass is 17 (16
for O +1 for H), which makes NaOH clock in at 39.99 g/mol of Lye
Note: mol is a way to count molecules, similar to dozens used in baking. Dozen means 12 each, whereas Mol
means 6.022*1023 each, so just as you know how many buns are in a 5 pound bag of bread, you can calculate
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geopolymer cement is sometimes mixed up with alkali-activated cement and concrete, developed more than 50
years ago by G.V. Glukhovsky in Ukraine, the former Soviet Union.[5] They were originally known under the names
"soil silicate concretes" and "soil cements". Because Portland cement concretes can be affected by the deleterious
Alkali-aggregate reaction, coined AAR or Alkali-silica reaction coined ASR (see for example the RILEM Committee 219-
ACS Aggregate Reaction in Concrete Structures [6]), the wording alkali-activation has a negative impact on civil
engineers. Nevertheless, several cement scientists continue to promote the idea of alkali-activated materials or alkali-
activated geopolymers. These cements coined AAM encompass the specific fields of alkali-activated slags, alkali-
activated coal fly ashes, blended cements (see RILEM Technical committee DTA).[7] However, it is interesting to
mention the fact that geopolymer cements do not generate any of these deleterious reactions (see below in
Properties).
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Ultimately what makes a material a true geopolymer is whether zeolite structures are formed in the resulting material,
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and by all account the above listed recipe does into produce alumino-silicate zeolitic structures.
If you want more information on the means of making type-F geopolymer, with advice of Davidovits himself, check out
this PDF I found where they made type-F geopolymer and inspected it on the microscale and chemically to verify its
having turned into a true geopolymer, and also presented is a formula similar to the one I present above:
http://www.iaster.com/uploadfolder/10CHEMICALREACTIONOFGEOPOLYMERCONCRETEWM5Nov13Copy/10CHEMICAL%
20REACTION%20OF%20GEOPOLYMER%20CONCRETE%20WM5Nov13%20Copy.pdf
In this community we've got to make a very clear delineation between type-C flyash or metakaolin-based geopolymer
concrete that most of the world is pursuing and researching, which is good for making buildings and airport-runways
and doesn't require "alkali activation", and type-F flyash-based geopolymer that is good for seasteading and does
require alkali activation.
Even now while research into and use of high-calcium geopolymers are rare, research into and use of low-calcium
geopolymers are even more rare because they don't need its sea-proof properties the way we do.
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In fact it is the opposite, Davidovits only works on type-F because with his method, he only gets flash set with type-C
and, according to him, the way to solve this problem is too complicated that it ruins the advantage of using fly-ash (he
said that at a Q&A session during one of his webinars). But scientists may find a way with time, maybe.
Also, I would like to add that Davidovits has also released his formula to the public. Check this paper at the
Geopolymer Institute Library GEOASH: ambient temp. hardening of fly ash-based geopolymer cements I invite readers
to compare, perform testing and make their recipe.
The key element to make a great room temperature hardening, user friendly mix of cement, is in mastering the process.
The order of mixing, the preparation, creating the geopolymer binder first, then add the rest, are the essential keys to
manufacture a very good product. Otherwise, people do rubbish, full of blooming, high carbonation, leachate and other
bad problems. I strongly invite people to watch Davidovits webinar, especially the 7th topic on fly-ash. Geopolymer Web
Workshop Webinar Watching these videos was a great eye opening to me and I immediately made fantastic
improvements.
One more thing. I would like to share my experience. Now I use potassium instead of sodium. First, the mix is more fluid
(I add less water), I get much better physical properties and less chemical problems in the end. Like most people, I
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thought using potassium was more expensive than sodium. It is true if we substitute 1kg of sodium silicate with 1 kg of
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this is not the rule with geopolymer cement. The real truth is I use up to 2.5 x/weight less
potassium silicate than sodium silicate in my mix to get the same fluidity and reactivity (the latter depends on your
fly-ash and how you prepare your mix). So, the final price is the same and I solve many problems caused by the use of
sodium!!! Please, try it, it is worth it.
Sorry for not being more precise as you do, but I am working for a company now and the results are very promising in
terms of properties, standards compliances (very important) and workers' safety (a less corrosive mix, you can dip your
finger in it and it does not burn your skin).
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Edit: This quote from the piece seems to indicate what I'd said above, that his preferred geopolymer method does not
produce zeolitics structures, which is the primary thing I'm trying to generate for saltwater resistance:
In the zeolitic procedure, Na-aluminium-silicates (mainly zeolitic products) are formed as a result of the alkaline and
thermal activation. The method implies the dissolution of the fly ash particles in such a way that the original
mineralogy is significantly modified. Fly ash aluminosilicate glassy spheres are dissolved. Figure 4 shows the clear
decrease in the background hump of the diffraction patterns between fly ash and NaOH 12M (alkaliactivation). This
results in new species, mainly chabazite-Na (NaAlSi2O6·3H2O) and sodalite (Na4Al3Si3O12(OH). Quartz, mullite and
magnetite are low reactive phases only partially involved in the zeolitization and remain as relict mineralogy of fly
ash. KOH is not an optimal activator in this conventional method since the degree of reactivity is lower than with
NaOH. The (Ca,K)-based geopolymeric method is performed at room temperature and entails a low degree of
dissolution since only the surface of the starting materials is taking part in the reaction. For the Geopolymer pattern
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in Figure 4, the original mineralogy of fly ash is not significantly modified. The (Ca,K)-poly(sialate-siloxo) amorphous
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from the inter-geopolymerization of the fly ash aluminosilicate glassy spheres (slight decrease in the
background hump), with the alkaline solution and the slag. (Nr 22, p8)
Ultimately we'll have to do ocean durability tests to see how each material compares.
Edit2: Oh wait, he adds in a lot of extra calcium with the slag--he essentially converts his type-F flyash into a type-C
slurry, adding in some 10% Ca that way:
http://i.imgur.com/C59bgRB.png
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Fly ash:
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Fly ash, also known as flue-ash, is one of the residues generated in combustion, and comprises the fine particles that
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flue gases. Ash which does not rise is termed bottom ash. In an industrial context, fly ash usually refers
to ash produced during combustion of coal. Fly ash is generally captured by electrostatic precipitators or other
particle filtration equipment before the flue gases reach the chimneys of coal-fired power plants, and together with
bottom ash removed from the bottom of the furnace is in this case jointly known as coal ash. Depending upon the
source and makeup of the coal being burned, the components of fly ash vary considerably, but all fly ash includes
substantial amounts of silicon dioxide (SiO2) (both amorphous and crystalline) and calcium oxide (CaO), both being
endemic ingredients in many coal-bearing rock strata.
====
Image i - Photomicrograph made with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and back-scatter detector: cross section of fly
ash particles at 750x magnification
Interesting: Fly ash ^brick | Controlled low strength ^material | Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry ^spill | Ash ^pond
Parent commenter can toggle ^NSFW or ^delete. Will also delete on comment score of -1 or less. | FAQs | ^Mods | Magic ^Words
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bauxite
With two minutes of research to go on, it seems bauxite has an unfavorable ratio of silica to alumina, which would
throw the chemistry way off. You want at least double the silica to aluminum.
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Anyone tried using potassium silicate yet? @chofsi Are you also substituting lye with KOH? Are you using slag in your
design mix? Also anyone know any substitute for iron slag?
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