Poll Res.

38 (3) : 832-838 (2019)

Copyright © EM International
ISSN 0257–8050

POTENTIAL APPLICATION OF NANO PARTICLES IN GREEN

CONCRETE FOR SUSTAINABLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
J. REVATHY*, P. GAJALAKSHMI AND N. NIRAIMATHI
Department of Civil Engineering,
B. S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Institute of Science & Technology, India
(Received 12 December, 2018, accepted 1 April, 2019)

ABSTRACT
Owing to the need of overcoming the depletion of natural resources and to eliminate the emission
of greenhouse gases during manufacturing of the most common construction material cement, an
alternate material, ecofriendly green concrete was suggested. Green concrete is cement-less
geopolymer concrete activated by alkali solutions. This study presented the potential application
of nano silica to overcome the need of heat activation of geopolymer and to enhance the strength
and durability properties of green geopolymer concrete. Nano silica was added in three different
dosages. Green concrete was tested for the compressive strength at various ages of curing. The
durability properties were conducted through water absorption test, sorptivity test, acid attack test
and sea water resistance test. Also, microstructural analysis was carried out to study the minute
characteristics of green concrete. The test results of the experimental investigation showed that the
addition of nano silica played a vital role in elimination of heat activation. On the other hand, 0.5%
addition of nano silica modified green concrete improved its durability properties comparatively
than the other mixes. It also observed that the nano silica modified green concrete enhanced its
morphological structure and thus boosted the process of polymerization.

KEY WORDS : Flyash, Geopolymer, Green concrete, Nanoparticles, Nanosilica

INTRODUCTION consumes less energy in its production and releases

Generally, construction industry consumes tons and
tons of concrete every year and Ordinary Portland
cement is the most common binding material used
in the manufacturing of concrete. With increasing
infrastructure development, it is predictable that the
utilization of cement will increase radically. The
manufacturing process consumes four Giga Joules
of energy and it releases nearly a ton of carbon- di-
oxide into the atmosphere, which is a deadly
greenhouse gas that has adverse impacts on our
environment leading to global warming. Thus, to
reduce the environmental pollution and excess
embodied energy utilization, one of the solutions
can be the eco-friendly Green concrete by utilizing
the industrial waste materials such as like Blast
Furnace Slag from Steel plants, Fly ash from thermal
power plants, reprocessed concrete, recycled
demolition waste aggregate etc. Green Concrete
less carbon dioxide than normal concrete. Thus, it
saves resources and curtails the exploitation of
natural resources.
In the present scenario, nano technology has
attracted significant attention towards the potential
use of small size particles (1 to 100 nanometer scale)
in concrete (Raki et al., 2010 and Sanchez et al., 2010).
A number of studies have been carried out in fly ash
based geopolymer concrete and geopolymer mortar
whereas incorporation of nanoparticles in green
concrete is an emerging area of research. The
influence of nano silica in metakaolin based
geopolymer on its strength properties and setting
time of geopolymer were studied. It was found that
1% of nanosilica with solid to liquid ratio 1.03
exhibited higher strength, minimum porosity and
enhanced compactness (Kang et al., 2013). An
experimental study was carried out to assess the
influence of nano silica based activators for alkali

*Corresponding author’s email: revathyj@crescent.education