Recycling of ferronickel slag tailing in cementitious materials: Activation and performance

As an industrial by-product containing pozzolanic components, recycled ferronickel slag (FNS) has the potential to be supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) to reduce the massive carbon footprint of the cement industry, however, the main limitation of ferronickel slag as SCMs is the low hydration rate at an early age. In this study, the pozzolanic activity property results indicate that if the proportion is more than 10 %, FSN can hardly participate in the cement hydration reaction during the early stage, even the mechanical strength of FNS-mortar decreases obviously with the higher proportion of ferronickel slag. Therefore, mechanical grinding and steam curing at an early age are applied to promote the reaction activity of the recycled ferronickel slag tailing in this study. Compared with standard curing, the compressive strength of hardened FNS-cement paste with steam curing at 60 °C or 80 °C increased by 8.2 % or 33.8 %, and the connected porosity decreased by 18.9 % or 17.3 %. And MgO in the ferronickel slag exists as Mg2SiO4 in raw materials and enters the C-S-H gel with the formation of M-S-H gel during the secondary hydration stage. This study provides a theoretical basis for solid waste-based concrete and promotes the recycling, conservation, and resources of solid waste in building materials. [Display omitted] •Recycled FNS powders can be applied as the SCMs for carbon footprint reduction.•With the content exceeding 10 %, the insufficient pretreated FNS can hardly participate in the hydration reaction.•The reactivity of FNS can be effectively enhanced by mechanical grinding and steam curing pretreatment.