The effect of temperature on the geopolymerization process of a metakaolin-based geopolymer

This paper describes the effect of different curing temperatures on the geopolymerization process, physical, mechanical and optical properties of a metakaolin-based geopolymer activated by alkali. The influence of different curing temperatures (within the range 30 to 90 °C) was studied systematically by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), SEM, UV/Vis Spectrophotometry, Leaching analysis and Brunauer-Emmet-Teller method (BET). The results showed the existence of an optimum temperature at which the geopolymer presents the best physical and mechanical properties. The geopolymers cured at 30 and 90 °C presented high porosity, and were translucent to the Visible light, which makes possible to tailor this inorganic polymers for optical and photocatalytic applications. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Muniz-Villarreal M.S. wants to thank CONACYT for scholarship, and Maria-Carmen Delgado, Eleazar-Urbina and Martin-Adelaido Landaverde for their technical assistance.Muñiz-Villarreal, MS.; Manzano Ramirez, A.; Sampieri-Bulbarela, S.; Gasca-Tirado, JR.; Reyes-Araiza, JL.; Rubio-Ávalos, JC.; Pérez Bueno, JJ.... (2011). The effect of temperature on the geopolymerization process of a metakaolin-based geopolymer. Materials Letters. 65(5):995-998. doi:10.1016/j.matlet.2010.12.049S99599865