Alkali-activated dolomite and its outstanding mechanical strength

[Display omitted] •Early strength and high strength alkali-activated dolomite.•Dolomite solubility proposed as an evaluation index of AD strength.•The consolidation mechanism includes dedolomitization and ion exchange. Alkali-activated dolomite (AD) was successfully prepared from dolomite powder by alkali activation via the process of compression molding at room temperature (22 °C). The AD put up excellent early strength and high strength properties: the 2-day and 28-day compressive strength of AD reached 58 MPa and 122 MPa respectively. Based on the corresponding characterization analysis, such as XRD, SEM, EDS, the polymerization mechanism of AD polymer was discussed. The consolidation process of dolomite powder was considered to involve two kinds of chemical reactions that were dolomitization and ion cross-linking.