Boosting Portland cement-free composite performance via alkali-activation and reinforcement with pre-treated functionalised wheat straw

Mehdi Chougan, Seyed Hamidreza Ghaffar*, Pawel Sikora, Ewa Mijowska, Wojciech Kukułka, Dietmar Stephan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
27 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Utilising wheat straw reinforced OPC-free composites in the construction industry requires efficient, eco-friendly pre-treatment coupled with surface functionalisation methods to turn it into a high-performance material. Herein, alkali-activated material (AAM) was used as an OPC-free matrix, while eco-friendly hybrid pre-treatment and surface functionalisations were applied to mitigate the surface quality deficiencies of wheat straw and improve its compatibility with low-carbon binders. Wheat straw particles were subjected to a mild physical pre-treatment (hot-water followed by steam) and surface functionalisation using attapulgite nanoclay and graphene nanoplatelets to improve their capacity as an effective reinforcing material in AAM. Comprehensive characterisation verified successful pre-treatment and surface functionalisation, which led to the improved interfacial bond between wheat straw and AAM. The best results were obtained for the AAM samples reinforced with pre-treated straw that was functionalised with attapulgite nanoclay (i.e., H+S-AT), in which the volume of permeable voids decreased by 18%, while compressive and flexural strength at 90 d increased by 41% and 27%, respectively, compared to the control sample. However, the effect on the thermal properties of the resulted composites was not significant.

Original languageEnglish
Article number114648
Number of pages12
JournalIndustrial Crops and Products
Volume178
Early online date9 Feb 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was funded as part of the HP-CSB project, which has received funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council with the following reference: EP/S026487/1. The authors acknowledge Nanesa S.r.l for graphene material supply and Dr. C. Lehmann from TU Berlin for SEM assessments.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022

Keywords

  • Alkali-activated materials
  • Attapulgite nanoclay
  • Graphene nanoplatelets
  • Pre-treatment
  • Surface functionalisation
  • Wheat straw

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Agronomy and Crop Science

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