Effects of calcination and milling pre-treatments on natural

zeolites as a supplementary cementitious

material
Valentina Bermúdez Gómez – 1001013365

Processes that require high temperatures and involve physicochemical

reactions on surfaces and volumes are very interesting. Among the materials
obtained by transforming minerals at high temperatures is cement, which is
the key to the research carried out in this work. The production of this material
is vital for society as it is the building block of concrete (cement + aggregates
+ water + additives), the first manufactured product used by humans. Previous
research cited in the article showed that natural zeolites (hydrated aluminum
silicates) are pozzolanic, that is, they act as auxiliary cementitious materials.
Different percentages of NZ substitution have been added to ordinary portland
cement (OPC); In order to increase the percentages of substitution of cement
by NZ, it has been decided to subject the NZ to pre-treatments (calcination,
chemical attack or grinding), which allow improving the pozzolanic activity.
The authors and researchers of the article focused on evaluating the effects
of calcination and conventional grinding, as well as their combination
(calcination-grinding) in that order; all this to analyze the pozzolanic activity of
natural zeolites. They began by characterizing zeolites by means of x-ray
fluorescence, but they also used their diffraction technique in order to discover
mineralogical and structural effects in the samples after they had been
calcined.
The results found show that the most effective individual pre-treatment is
grinding, but the combined calcination-grinding pre-treatment is the most
efficient of the three evaluated. This combined pre-treatment provides many
advantages such as a greater increase in compressive strength and the non-
agglomeration of the material in the mill.