This work is aimed to study the possibility of recycling plastic waste (polypropylene (PP)) as aggregate instead of sand in the manufacturing of mortar or concrete. For this, an experimental study was carried out to evaluate the influence of nano-SiO2 and recycled PP plastic particles' content on physical, mechanical, and shrinkage properties and microstructure of the mortars with recycled PP plastic particles. The sand is substituted with the recycled PP plastic particles at dosages (0%, 20%, 40%, and 60% by volume of the sand). The nano-SiO2 content is 5% by weight of cement. The physical (porosity, water absorption, and density), mechanical (compressive and flexural strength) and shrinkage properties of the mortars were evaluated, and a complementary study on microstructure of the interface between cementitious matrix and PP plastic particles was made. The measurements of physical and mechanical properties showed that PP-filled mortar had lower density and better toughness (higher ratio of flexural strength to compressive strength). However, the compressive strength and flexural strength of PP-filled mortar is reduced, and the porosity, water absorption, autogenous shrinkage, and dry shrinkage increased as compared to normal cement mortar. The addition of nano-SiO2 reduced the porosity, water absorption, and drying shrinkage of PP-filled mortar and effectively improved the mechanical properties, but increased its autogenous shrinkage. A microscopic study of the interfacial zone (plastic-binder) has shown that there is poor adhesion between PP plastic particles and cement paste. From this work, it is found that recycled PP plastic waste has a great potential to be a construction material. It can be used as partial replacement of natural aggregates instead.

Alkali activated slag (AAS) mortar is becoming an increasingly popular green building material because of its excellent engineering properties and low CO2 emissions, promising to replace ordinary Portland cement (OPC) mortar. However, AAS’s high shrinkage and short setting time are the important reasons to limit its wide application in engineering. This paper was conducted to investigate the effect of internal curing(IC) by super absorbent polymer (SAP) on the autogenous shrinkage of AAS mortars. For this, an experimental study was carried out to evaluate the effect of SAP dosage on the setting time, autogenous shrinkage, compressive strength, microstructure, and pore structure. The SAP were incorporated at different dosage of 0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 percent by weight of slag. The workability, physical (porosity), mechanical, and shrinkage properties of the mortars were evaluated, and a complementary study on microstructure was made. The results indicated that the setting time increased with an increase of SAP dosage due to the additional activator released by SAP. Autogenous shrinkage decreased with an increase of SAP dosage, and was mitigated completely when the dosage of SAP ≥ 0.2% wt of slag. Although IC by means of SAP reduced the compressive strength, this reduction (23% at 56 days for 0.2% SAP) was acceptable given the important role that it played on mitigating autogenous shrinkage. In the research, the 0.2% SAP dosage was the optimal content. The results can provide data and basis for practical application of AAS mortar.

Alkali-activated slag (AAS) is becoming an increasingly popular building material due to its excellent engineering properties and low CO 2 emissions, but its large shrinkage is an important reason to restrict its application and popularization. is work is aimed to study the possibility of inhibiting the shrinkage of AAS mortar by incorporating polypropylene fiber (PPF). For this, an experimental study was carried out to evaluate the effects of PPF content on setting time, fluidity, physical properties, mechanical properties, impact resistance, and microstructure of AAS mortar. e volume content of PPF is 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.15%, and 0.2%. e working, physical (porosity, water absorption, and bulk density), mechanical, shrinkage, and impact resistance properties of the AAS mortars were evaluated. e results show that incorporating PPF effectively reduces the shrinkage deformation of AAS mortar, significantly improves its impact resistance, enhances its toughness, and slightly improves its compressive strength in the later stage. At the same time, PPF delays the initial setting time of AAS mortar and reduces the fluidity, density, porosity, and water absorption of AAS mortar. SEM results show that the bridging effect of PPF between AAS mortars can inhibit the generation and propagation of cracks, improve the internal microstructure, and enhance the performance of AAS mortar.

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