Development of Silicate Polymers

The development of inorganic polymers is a new promising technology that may be used in many applications. The syntheses of inorganic polymers are normally carried out either by mixing an amorphous material for example silicium dioxide with a mineral base or dissolving metal oxids or metal hydroxide in acid and increase pH to saturation of the metal hydroxide. It is assumed that the syntheses of the inorganic polymer are carried out through polymerisation of oligomers (dimer, trimer) which provide the actual unit structures of the three dimensional macromolecular structure.In this work an inorganic binder is developed based on fumed silica and potassium hydroxide. The optimal composition of the binder system was determined using compressive strength test. The investigation showed that the strength of the inorganic binder was strongly related to the content of potassium hydroxide in the system. Figure 1 shows the compressive strength as a function of the base concentration in the system.Furthermore, the hardening process was investigated as a function of temperature. These results showed that the hardening process was accelerated as the temperature was increased.