A new method to evaluate the hydraulic activity of Al-Si materials

Slag, fly ash, gangue and 500°C calcined gangue are analyzed by using identical coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and magnetic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR). Research results show that there is a negative linear relationship between the Si 2p and Al 2p binding energies of Al-Si materials and the compressive strength of aluminosilicate based cementitious materials prepared with these Al-Si materials, i.e. the lower the binding energies, the higher the compressive strength. Indeed, the Si 2p and Al 2p binding energies of Al-Si materials can be used to indicate their hydraulic activity. The binding energies of the four examined materials increase in the order of slag, fly ash, 500°C calcined gangue and untreated gangue. Moreover, the binding energies of Si 2p, Al 2p and O 1s of every Al-Si material have excellent correlation. By using the Al 2p binding energy and 27Al MAS NMR spectra, the coordination number of aluminum in slag is determined to be four, while that in gangue, is six. Based on the aforementioned discoveries, this paper presents a new effective method to evaluate the hydraulic activity of Al-Si materials by using the surface binding energies of silicon and aluminum of Al-Si materials. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50474002) and the Key Project of Ministry of Education of China (Grant No.104231)