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Use of Perlite to Produce Geopolymers

Conference Paper · September 2011

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31st Cement and Concrete Science Conference Paper Number XX
Novel Developments and Innovation in Cementitious Materials
12-13 September 2011
Imperial College London, United Kingdom

Use of Perlite to Produce Geopolymers

S.T. Erdoğan
Department of Civil Engineering, Middle East Technical University

ABSTRACT

Perlite is a volcanic mineral abundant in Turkey, China, Japan, the US and several EU countries. Expanded
perlite has been used in producing lightweight concrete and the use of ground perlite as a pozzolan has been
suggested to partially replace cement. Its use as a geopolymeric precursor however is a novel idea. Turkish
perlites contain more than 70 % SiO2, and have a SiO2/Al2O3 ratio ~5.5. This study shows that ground perlite
can be mixed with alkaline activators to yield mortars with strengths comparable to portland cement (PC)
mortars. Strength gain is slower than with PC mixtures at room temperature but adequate ultimate strength
can be achieved with curing at slightly elevated temperatures in 24 h or less. Since perlite is natural, perlite
geopolymers can have environmental, energetic, and economical advantages over PC mixtures. The
consistency of its chemical composition compared to those of artificial pozzolans and its abundance in
several large, developing countries makes perlite attractive for producing sustainable concretes with reduced
carbon footprints.

Turkish perlites are amorphous and have a SiO2/

1. INTRODUCTION
Perlite is an amorphous mineral of volcanic origin
which contains 2–6 % chemically combined water.
Upon heating to ~900°C, this water is lost,
expanding it to a cellular material of low bulk
density. Consequently, in addition to its use in
horticulture and pharmaceuticals, expanded perlite
has been widely used by the construction industry
as an aggregate in the production of lightweight
concretes, insulation products etc. (The Perlite
Institute, 2011). Although less known, due to its
glassy nature and its chemical composition (70–
75% SiO2 and 12–18% Al2O3), finely-ground perlite
possesses pozzolanic properties, as demonstrated
in recent studies. Yu et al. (2003) reported
pozzolanic activity of perlite. Erdem et al. (2007)
used ground perlite to produce blended cements
and mortars, concluding that the grinding of perlite
is less energy-intensive than portland cement (PC)
clinkers.
Al2O3 ratio ~ 5.5. As such, they should be usable
with the necessary alkaline activators for making
strong geopolymers. With a known total worldwide
reserve base of ~7 billion tons (USGS-a, 2011),
perlite is quite abundant. Countries like Turkey,
China, Japan, the US, and some EU countries like
Greece and Italy share a majority of the reserves.
As some of these countries are major producers
(and some major users) of portland cement,
relatively small increases in the fraction of concrete
and other cementitious products made with perlite
geopolymers, while still meeting or exceeding
strength and durability requirements, can result
significant environmental and economical savings,
as well as technical and environmental
improvements. This paper presents results of
experiments that assess the geopolymerization
potential of mixtures containing only ground perlite
as their powder binder.
2. Experimental Investigation

Geopolymers are solid aluminosilicate materials Materials. A perlite from a quarry in Erzincan,
usually formed by activation of a solid powder Turkey was used as the sole powder binder in this
precursor such as coal fly ash, calcined clay and/or study. Table 1 provides the chemical composition of
metallurgical slag (Provis and van Deventer, 2009). the perlite used, as determined by using X-ray
The alkali geopolymerization of a material depends fluorescence.
on both physical and chemical factors like its
degree of crystallinity, the solubilities of Si and Al Table 1. Oxide Analysis of the Perlite Used (%)
and their ratio (Davidovits, 2008). An alkali SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 CaO MgO SO3 K2O Na2O
hydroxide or alkali silicate solution is often used.
71.1 13.0 1.6 1.6 0.5 1.6 3.8 4.2
The choice of Na or K as the alkali to use depends
on desired properties and economics.
The perlite was ground alone in a laboratory ball
2
Recently, the production of a perlite geopolymer mill to a Blaine fineness of ~4600 cm /g. The
(Vance et al., 2009) and a geopolymer foam specific gravity of the ground perlite was
insulation (Vaou and Panias, 2010) have been determined as 2.43. CEN Standard sand and
reported but the strengths achieved are very low. distilled water were used in preparing the mortars.

1
Two alkaline chemicals were used; NaOH and and the measured compressive strengths were
Na2SiO3 (waterglass). The NaOH, was in solid form around 0-5 MPa.
with > 97% purity but was used after dissolving in
water to obtain the desired concentrations. The Mixtures Containing both NaOH and Na2SiO3.
Na2SiO3 was a solution containing 38.5 % solids, These mixtures had a waterglass-to-NaOH solution
with a SiO2/ Na2O ratio ~3. ratio of 2.5. Since the waterglass was liquid, its
content is reported as a weight percentage of the
Mixture proportions and Curing Conditions. total powder binder. The influence of varying the
This study attempted the chemical and thermal NaOH solution concentration was investigated.
activation of mixtures containing perlite as the sole Table 3 shows the flexural and compressive
powder binder. The alkaline activators mentioned strengths of selected mixtures.
previously were used separately and together, in
varying amounts, and curing was performed at Table 3. Compressive Strengths of the Mortars Containing Both
room temperature and at elevated temperatures up Alkaline Activators
Mixture I Mixture II Mixture III
to 150 °C. A subset of the bending and
compressive strength results is presented in this 100 %
100 % 100 %
paper due to space limitations. perlite +
perlite + perlite + 16
16 M
3 M NaOH M NaOH
NaOH
The typical mortar specimen was the same as solution + solution +
Ingredients solution +
25 wt. % 25 wt. %
those described in TS EN 196-1 (TSI 2002) for PC 25 wt. %
waterglass waterglass
mortars, essentially a 4x4x16 cm prism, with the waterglass
+ 16 % + 28 %
+ 19 %
same amounts of powder binder and sand. The addit. water
addit. water addit. water
alkaline activating solution-to-binder ratio varied
since the different activators have different effects 1d @
on mixture viscosity. The total water-to-binder, 60 °C 26.3 - 12.8
including both the water present in the activating dry
1d @
solutions and any additional water was around 0.4 80 °C 27.4 - -
to provide the same flow as that of PC mortar dry
strength specimens. Mixing was done at room 1d @
Comp. 100 °C 29.4 28.9 -
temperature, the duration being slightly longer than Streng
that described in ASTM C 305 (ASTM, 2002). dry
th
2d @
Specimens to be thermally activated were placed in (MPa)
100 °C 25.6 25.6 -
the oven immediately after casting. Table 2 dry
presents the mixture proportions used in the 1d @
different categories of mortars for which test results 80 °C 4.5 - -
humid
are presented.
56d @
26.2 21.1 -
room
Table 2. Proportions of Materials Used for the Paste and Mortar
Mixtures 1d @
Category 60 °C 7.5 - 3.5
Category I Category II dry
III
1d @
Perlite (mass % 80 °C 8.0 - -
100 100 100
of powder binder) dry
NaOH and only Flexur 1d @
Alkaline activator only NaOH al 100 °C 9.5 5.9 -
Na2SiO3 Na2SiO3
Streng dry
Curing Room, 60, Room, 60, Room,
th 2d @
temperature (°C) 80, 100 80, 100 100, 150
(MPa) 100 °C 8.1 8.0
1d, 2d, 4d, 1d, 2d, 4d, 1d, 2d, 4d, dry
Curing Duration 1d @
56d 56d 56d
80 °C 1.3 - -
humid
3. Results and Discussions 56d @
7.8 4.7 -
room
Mixtures Containing NaOH as the Sole
Activator. These mixtures gave low flexural and Looking at the results for Mixture I cured under
compressive strengths, when cured at room- different conditions, it can be seen that the room-
temperature or elevated temperatures. This is temperature cured samples gain sufficient strength
similar to the findings in Vance et al. (2009) and for many engineering applications, given sufficient
Vaou and Panias (2010). The reason for this is time. With curing performed at slightly elevated
believed to be the low solubility of silicon and temperatures, 1 day or less is needed to achieve
aluminum from the perlite. Unlike with some other ultimate strength. Longer heat curing times don’t
geopolymeric precursor materials, increasing the improve strength and can even be detrimental.
concentration of the NaOH solution used did not Interestingly, while many geopolymers and alkali
consistently increase the strength of the specimens activated slags benefit from moist curing
2
conditions, perlite geopolymers show volume additional water was needed in Mixture V to keep
changes and cracking in sealed heat curing the total water content nearly constant. After curing
resulting in very low strengths. Increasing the dry- for 1 day at 100 °C, Mixture IV had similar strength
heat curing temperature improves the strength but as Mixture I, as expected, confirming the limited
only slightly. benefit of the NaOH activator. At 150 °C, the
strength dropped noticeably, indicating that the
Comparing Mixtures I and III, which are the same ideal dry heat curing temperature for geopolymer
except for their total water content, it is seen that mixtures is probably ~100 °C. When the waterglass
similar to Portland cement mixtures or consistent content was increased significantly as in Mixture V,
with other geopolymeric mixtures, increasing total- both compressive and flexural strength increased
water-to-binder ratio negatively and quickly impacts ~50 %.
strength.
Since waterglass alone hardens to a solid upon
Mixtures I and II have different NaOH solution heat curing, the specimens from Mixtures IV and V
concentrations. Since their activating solution were kept submerged in water at room temperature
contents are identical and the lower concentration for 1 day after the dry heat curing, along with
one contributes more water to the mixture, this another specimen containing only waterglass and
extra water is balanced by lowering the added silica sand which had been heat cured at 100 °C.
water content. Within experimental uncertainty, After 1 day, the specimens from Mixtures IV and V
compressive strength does not appear to be greatly had compressive strengths of 22 MPa and 37 MPa,
influenced by the concentration of the NaOH respectively. The waterglass and sand specimen
solution. had disintegrated completely. The perlite is
probably contributing dissolved alumina to the
Mixtures Containing Na2SiO3 as the Sole mixture which stabilizes it.
Activator. Since changing NaOH content did not
appear to affect strength development much, the General Comments. As with other geopolymeric
effect of varying Na2SiO3 content alone was precursors, the fineness to which perlite is ground
investigated next. Since the waterglass was liquid, can affect rate and completion of reactions. The
the amount of added water was varied to balance setting time of the perlite geopolymers depends on
the fluctuations in water contributed by the different curing conditions, particularly temperature and
amounts of waterglass used. Table 4 shows the humidity. Solidification is rather rapid at
flexural and compressive strengths of the mixtures temperatures even slightly higher than room
tested. temperature. Drying of the sample greatly
decreases working time. However, unlike portland
Table 4. Compressive Strengths of the Mortars Containing cement mixtures, with sufficient humidity, the
Na2SiO3 as the Sole Activator. mixtures can remain plastic for several hours, after
Mixture IV Mixture V Mixture III
100 %
which they can still react to achieve their strength
perlite + potential. Also noteworthy is that long-term ambient
100 % 100 %
16 M curing following oven curing does not affect
perlite + perlite +
NaOH strength. The outer shell of the dry oven-cured
30 wt. % 60 wt. %
solution + specimens is generally better reacted and stronger
Ingredients waterglass waterglass
25 wt. %
+ 20 % +0%
waterglass than the core, which results a higher flexural
addit. addit. strength to compressive strength ratio than for
+ 28 %
water water
addit. many geopolymers and PC mortars. Characteristic
water of geopolymers, the perlite mixture bonds well to
1d @ itself and other non-plastic surfaces. Steel molds
100 °C 28.2 46.1 12.8 can’t be used with grease but rather a polyethylene
dry
Comp. 1d @
or similar coating is needed.
Strength 150 °C 16.8 34.2 -
(MPa) dry The combined annual cement production of the
56d @
20.3 29.3 -
countries listed in the introduction exceeds 2 billion
room metric tons, over 60 % of the worldwide production.
1d @ China is increasing its annual production by ~100
100 °C 8.2 12.3 3.5 thousand tons every year, greater than the
dry individual annual production of any country in the
Flexural
1d @
Strength
150 °C 5.6 9.6 -
world except India (USGS-b, 2011). Natural
(MPa) pozzolans must offer significant economical or
dry
56d @
4.2 5.5 -
technical advantages to be preferred over industrial
room byproduct artificial pozzolans. However, an
argument could be made for their use where
Mixtures IV and V are similar but have different artificial pozzolans are not available or variations in
waterglass contents. As the waterglass used their compositions render them difficult to use for
contained > 60 % water percentage of water, no important projects. The low variability of the
3
 composition of perlite improves repeatability and
facilitates the widespread adoption of the findings
of studies using perlite. Studies on producing
geopolymers with artificial pozzolans report
different ‘ideal’ proportions of activating chemicals.
The energy that goes into preparation of ground
perlite for use in concrete is due mainly to grinding
and transportation. Crushing perlite from the
natural state is less energy intensive than crushing
clinker and energy for transportation depends on
site location. For thermally activated applications,
such as production of precast members, a small
amount of extra energy will be expended to
maintain the chosen temperature of the curing
environment. From a different environmental
perspective, some artificial pozzolans may contain
and concretes made with them can eventually
leach out hazardous materials, such as heavy
metals. This is a problem that would not be
encountered with perlite, thus rendering perlite
concretes more suitable for environmentally
sensitive sites. In short, geopolymeric concretes
made with ground perlite can be a greener
alternative.
4. Conclusions
The following general conclusions can be drawn
from the study provided in the paper:
Provis, J.L. and van Deventer, J.S.J., eds., 2009.
Geopolymers: Structures, processing, properties
and industrial applications, CRC Press, USA.
Davidovits, J., Geopolymer chemistry and
applications (Institut Geopolymere, St. Quentin,
France 2008)
Vance, E.R., Perera, D.S.,Imperia, P., Cassidy,
D.J., Davis, J., Gourley, J.T., 2009. Journal of the
Australian Ceramic Society Vol. 45(1): 44-49.
Vaou, V., Panias, D., 2010. Minerals Engineering
Vol 23(14): 1146.
USGS-a, 2011. Mineral Commodity Summaries,
Perlite.
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodit
y/perlite/mcs-2011-perli.pdf. Accessed August 1,
2011.
TSI 2002. Methods of testing cement-Part 1:
Determination of strength, TS EN 196 Part 3.
ASTM 2002. Standard Practice for Mechanical
Mixing of Hydraulic Cement Pastes and Mortars
of Plastic Consistency. ASTM C 305 Annual Book
of ASTM Standards. Vol. 04.02.
USGS-b, 2011. Mineral Commodity Summaries,
Cement.
http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodit
y/cement/mcs-2011-cemen.pdf. Accessed
August 1, 2011.

 Perlite is an effective natural pozzolan but can

also be used to produce geopolymeric binders.
 Use of NaOH solutions alone don’t result
geopolymer mortars with high strengths.
 The use of NaOH and Na2SiO3 combined or
Na2SiO3 alone yields higher strength mixtures.
 Dry curing conditions are needed to achieve
adequate mechanical properties.
 Curing at around 100 °C gives the highest
flexural and compressive strengths.
 Room temperature curing can be used to obtain
perlite geopolymers with compressive strengths
in the 20-30 MPa range with sufficient time.
 Perlite geopolymers can have weight
advantages over conventional portland cement
mixtures.
 Perlite geopolymers can be economically and
environmentally superior to geopolymers made
with industrial byproducts.

References

The Perlite Institute, 2011.

http://www.perlite.org/perlite_info.htm. Accessed
August 1, 2011.
Yu, L.H., Ou, L., Lee, L.L., 2003. Cement and
Concrete Research Vol. 33(1): 73.
Erdem, T.K., Meral, Ç., Tokyay, M., Erdoğan T.Y.,
2007. Cement and Concrete Composites Vol.
29(1): 13.

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