Effects of Characteristics of Fly Ash on the Properties of Geopolymer

The properties of two types of fly ash geopolymers made from class F fly ashes produced in wet bottom and dry bottom boilers were investigated in the present study. The source material used in the geopolymer concrete was activated with sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solution. The results revealed that the geopolymer produced with wet bottom boiler fly ash （CZ-FA）hardened quickly, and had higher early-age strength and lower shrinkage than the geopolymer produced with dry bottom boiler fly ash （SX-FA）. The compressive strength of the two geopolymers made from CZ-FA and SX-FA was 45 MPa and 15 MPa respectively when cured at 60℃ and delayed for 14 d. However, after 90 days＇ delay, the compressive strength of both the samples is almost the same, up to 80 MPa. Nearly 20% volume shrinkage of the samples made from SX-FA was much higher than that made from CZ-FA, which was almost zero. XRD, SEM/EDS and FT-IR were used to analyze the main reason of the differences.