33rd Annual Conference of Orissa Chemical Society and National Conference on 

Recent
Advancement in Material Sciences (RAIMS 2019)

PREPARATION OF
HIGH-PERFORMANCE
GRAPHENE GEOPOLYMER COMPOSITES
Presented & Prepared By:
R.S KRISHNA
Bachelor of Technology
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Government College of Engineering Keonjhar

Under the supervision of:

JYOTIRMOY MISHRA
Ph.D Scholar
Department of Civil Engineering
Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology
CONTENTS
• GEOPOLYMERS

• GRAPHENE

• RELEVANT LITERATURE REVIEW

• PREPARATION METHODOLOGY

• POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS

• CONCLUSION

• REFERENCES
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GEOPOLYMERS
 Geopolymer is an emerging cement-free low-carbon construction
material.

 In 1978, Joseph Davidovits first coined the term “Geopolymer”.

 Geopolymer is a Si/Al inorganic polymer which is formed when

molecules are bonded covalently.

 Constituents of Geopolymer Composite:

 Alumino-Silicate Source Materials (Fly ash, GGBFS, Ferrochrome

Ash, RHA etc.)
 Alkaline Solutions ( a ratio of Na/K based Hydroxides and Silicates)

 Geopolymer concrete is found to be more durable and exhibits better

strength properties than normal cement based concrete.
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GEOPOLYMER COMPOSITE PREPARATION

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ADVANTAGE OF GEOPOLYMERS
 Waste Encapsulation
 Control Global Warming (Cutting world’s carbon)
 Eco-Friendly
 Relieves Water Stress/Crisis
 Improves Industrial Solid Waste Management
 Better Properties
• High Strength

• Low Creep & Shrinkage

• Resistance to Heat & Cold

• Chemical resistance

• Fire resistance
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NEED FOR ENHANCEMENT
• Fly ash is the most suitable source material for geopolymerization
because of its physical and chemical properties.
• However, properties of geopolymer composites with other waste
materials are not up to the standards achieved by fly ash.
• Moreover, in most cases, geopolymer composites exhibit failure
behaviour similar to brittle solids (High compressive strength but
low tensile strength).
• Hence there is a need for secondary reinforcement like the
wonder material, Graphene, which can influence and enhance the 6
properties as reported in few literatures.
GEOPOLYMERS COMPOSITE

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE
CUBES
GEOPOLYMER CAST-IN-
PLACE SIDEWALK
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GRAPHENE

GRAPHENE POWDER CHEMICAL STRUCTURE

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 First 2-dimensional material ever discovered.

 Hard to manufacture in large quantities, just about all graphene

produced is used for R&D within companies and universities.

 Strongest, lightest, and most conductive material known to man.

 Considered a “wonder material” since it has many remarkable

properties.

 Thinnest material in the world (just one carbon atom thick and
arranged in a hexagonal lattice), and also one of the strongest - much
stronger than both diamond and steel of the same thickness.

 Flexible and transparent, has an extraordinarily large surface area, and

is an extremely stretchable crystal.
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SYNTHESIS OF GRAPHENE
Various methods used till date are as follows :

• Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD).

• Mechanical Exfoliation.

• Epitaxial Growth of Graphene on SiC (Silicon carbide).

• Chemical Methods (Hummers Method).

• Electrochemical Exfoliation.

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GRAPHENE DERIVATIVES
Derivatives of grapheme commonly used in the preparation of
Graphene-Geopolymer composites.
• Graphene Oxide (GO)
• Reduced Graphene Oxide (rGO)
• Graphene Nanoplatelet (GNP)

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GRAPHENE POWDERS

GO Powders (1gm) rGO Powders (1gm) GNP Powders (1gm)

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RELEVANT LITERATURE REVIEW
Authors Major Findings

Saafi et.al. (2015) Incorporation of in-situ rGO sheets(0.35-wt.%)

into geopolymers yielded a rise in flexural
strength (134%), Young's modulus (376%) &
toughness (56%).

Ranjbar et.al. (2015) Introduced GNP’s (1-wt.%) homogenously into

the matrix of geopolymer composite which
resulted in increased compressive strength
(144%), flexural strength(216%) and decreased
wettability. 13
RELEVANT LITERATURE REVIEW
Authors Major Findings

Yan et.al.(2016) GO could be partially in-situ reduced with the help of

alkaline geopolymeric solution in a short period at room
temperature and the geopolymeric composite with rGO
(0.5-wt.%) exhibited a rise in fracture toughness (61.5%).

Zhang et.al. Strength of geopolymer composite is gradually increased

(2018) with the increased addition amounts of the graphene to a
certain extent, and the addition of graphene has obvious
improvement effects on the compressive strength of the
composite. 14
RELEVANT LITERATURE REVIEW
Authors Major Findings

Zhang et.al. Utilized graphene geopolymer nanocomposite as a

(2016) photocatalyst for degradation of methyl violet from
wastewater.

Saafi et.al. (2016) Developed a hybrid superionic long gauge sensor for
structural health monitoring applications consisting of
two graphene electrodes and a superionic conductor film
made entirely of fly ash geopolymeric material.

Xu et.al. (2016) Fabricated a multifunctional structural supercapacitor

based on graphene and geopolymer infused with 2 M
KOH electrolyte. 15
PREPARATION METHODOLOGY

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POSSIBLE COMPOSITE APPLICATIONS
Applications Authors

Construction Ranjbar et.al. (2015),

Guoxue Zhang & Juan Lu
(2018)
Degradation of Dye Wastewater Zhang et.al. (2016)

Structural health monitoring Saafi et.al. (2016)

3D Printing Zhong et.al. (2017)

Photo-catalyst for production of H2(Hydrogen) Zhang et.al. (2017)

Supercapacitor Jiaming Xu & Dong Zhang

(2017)
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CONCLUSION
• Graphene indubitably is a strength & property enhancer for a
wide range of geopolymer composites regardless of the
configuration or form of graphene used.
• Incorporation of graphene in geopolymers can exceptionally
improve its mechanical properties along with various other
properties.
• Graphene reinforced geopolymer composites bear promising
properties to be applied in different fields and new applications
are yet to be found in the future.
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REFERENCES
• J. Davidovits, Geopolymers: Inorganic polymeric new materials, J. Therm.
Anal, 37 (1991), pp.1633-1656.
• M. Saafi, et.al.(2016), Hybrid graphene/geopolymeric cement as a
superionic conductor for structural health monitoring applications, Smart
Mater. Struct., 25, 105018, doi:10.1088/0964-1726/25/10/105018
• J. Zhong et.al. (2017), 3D printing strong and conductive geo-polymer
nanocomposite structures modified by graphene oxide, Carbon,117, pp.
421-426.
• N. Ranjbar et al. / Cement and Concrete Research 76 (2015) 222–231
• Y. Zhang et.al.(2016) A new graphene/geopolymer nanocomposite for
degradation of dye wastewater, Integrated Ferroelectrics, 171:1, 38-45
• Zhang YJ, et al., A new graphene bottom ash geopolymeric composite for
photocatalytic H2 production and degradation of dyeing wastewater,
International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2017)
• J. Xu, D. Zhang / Electrochimica Acta 224 (2017) 105–112
• G. Zhang and J. Lu AIP Advances 8, 065209 (2018)
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