Materials Letters 263 (2020) 127236

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Materials Letters
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mlblue

Properties of one-part geopolymer incorporating wollastonite as partial

replacement of geopolymer precursor or sand
Shin Hau Bong, Behzad Nematollahi ⇑, Ming Xia, Ali Nazari, Jay Sanjayan
Center for Smart Infrastructure and Digital Construction, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria 3122, Australia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study reports the effects of using wollastonite as sand or geopolymer precursor replacements on
Received 27 August 2019 properties of a one-part (just-add-water) geopolymer mortar. Fresh and hardened properties of mixtures
Received in revised form 8 November 2019 containing 0, 10, and 20% (by mass) of wollastonite were experimentally measured. The results showed
Accepted 21 December 2019
that using wollastonite as sand replacement significantly improved the flexural strength of the mixtures,
Available online 23 December 2019
while the compressive strength was either increased or remained unchanged, depending on the wollas-
tonite content. However, using wollastonite as geopolymer precursor replacement did not improve the
Keywords:
flexural strength of the mixtures. Using wollastonite as sand or geopolymer precursor replacements sig-
One-part geopolymer
Wollastonite
nificantly reduced the workability and setting time of the mixtures.
Just-add-water Ó 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Fresh properties
Mechanical properties

1. Introduction
Wollastonite is a natural white mineral with needle-like crys-
tals and its major chemical composition is calcium silicate. This
material has been used as an alternative micro-fiber to steel and
carbon micro-fibers to enhance the mechanical properties of ordi-
nary Portland cement (OPC)-based materials [1]. However, the pro-
duction of OPC requires considerable energy and emits significant
amount of CO2. Geopolymer is a cement-free alternative binder to
OPC synthesized by alkaline activation of geopolymer precursors
(e.g. fly ash and slag) [2]. The influence of wollastonite on proper-
ties of geopolymers has rarely been studied. Therefore, this study
aimed to investigate the fresh and hardened properties of a
geopolymer mortar incorporating wollastonite as a partial substi-
tute of either geopolymer precursor or sand. The investigated
geopolymer mixture had a one-part (just-add-water) mix formula-
tion, utilising a small quantity of solid activator, instead of large
amounts of activator solutions, which considerably improves the
commercial viability and large-scale application of the developed
geopolymer in the construction industry.
2. Materials and methods
A combination of low-calcium (Class F) fly ash and granulated
ground blast furnace slag (henceforth referred to as slag) supplied
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: bnematollahi@swin.edu.au (B. Nematollahi).
by Cement Australia Pty Ltd. was used as the geopolymer precur-
sors. Anhydrous sodium metasilicate powder with a modulus
(M s ) of 0.9 (where M s = nSiO2/nNa2O, SiO2 = 46 wt% and Na2-
O = 51 wt%) supplied by Redox Pty Ltd., Australia was used as
the solid activator. Silica sand with a median size of 840 mm sup-
plied by Sibelco Australia Ltd. was used. Wollastonite powder with
a chemical composition of CaO (43.48 wt%), SiO2 (48.62 wt%) and
Al2O3 (1.12 wt%) and an average aspect ratio of 19:1 was Supplied
by Jilin Shanwei Wollastonite Mining Co., Ltd., China. The optical
microstructure and XRD pattern of the wollastonite powder are
shown in Fig. 1.
The mixture proportions investigated in this study are pre-
sented in Table 1. Two series of geopolymer mixtures, namely S
series and GP series were prepared. In S series, the sand was par-
tially (up to 20% by mass) replaced by the wollastonite powder.
However, in GP series, the geopolymer precursors (fly ash + slag)
were partially (up 20% by mass) replaced by the wollastonite pow-
der. In all mixtures, the mass ratio of fly ash to slag was equal to
1.0. As shown in Table 1, the water to the geopolymer precursors
ratio was chosen to be 0.36 in GP series mixtures. With the same
water content, S series mixtures, however, exhibited poor worka-
bility. Therefore, the water content was increased to 0.43 in S series
mixtures.
All mixtures were prepared by adding fly ash, slag, solid
activator, sand and wollastonite (if any) to a Hobart mixer and
dry mixed for 3 min at a low speed. Tap water was then gradually
added and mixing was continued for another 10 min. After the
ingredients were thoroughly mixed, the workability of each

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2019.127236
0167-577X/Ó 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2 S.H. Bong et al. / Materials Letters 263 (2020) 127236
Fig. 1. (a) Optical microstructure (substrate: stainless steel) and (b) XRD analysis of the wollastonite powder.
Table 1
Mixture proportions of the one-part geopolymer mortar mixtures incorporating wollastonite.
Mix ID Geopolymer precursors
S0 1.00
S10 1.00
S20 1.00
GP0 1.00
GP10 0.90
GP20 0.80
Note: All numbers are mass ratios of the geopolymer precursors (fly ash + slag) weight.
mixture was measured by conducting a mini-slump test according
to ASTM C1437 (2015). The initial and final setting times of each
mixture were also measured by using a Vicat apparatus according
to ASTM C807 (2018). To measure the compressive and flexural
strengths of each mixture, six 25 mm cube specimens and three
prismatic specimens (25 mm  25 mm  280 mm) were prepared.
A previous study of the authors showed that the 28-day strength of
the one-part geopolymer samples (made from exactly the same
materials and mixture proportions as those of GP0 in this study)
cured in water for 28 days at ambient temperature (23 ± 3°C)
was comparable to the one-day strength of the same samples
cured in an oven at 60°C for 24 h [3]. Therefore, the same heat cur-
ing procedure (24 h at 60°C) was adopted in this study to acceler-
ate the geopolymerization reaction. All samples were tested at one
day after casting (i.e. at the end of the heat curing period). All cube
specimens were tested in uniaxial compression under load control
at the rate of 20 MPa/min. All prismatic specimens were tested
under displacement control at the rate of 1.0 mm/min using a
three-point bending test setup with a 200 mm long span.
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 2(a) shows the average spread diameters of each mixture
before and after the drop of the flow table. For both S and GP series
mixtures, the workability reduced as the wollastonite content
increased. The needle-like shape of wollastonite may overlap
between each other and form network structures that can resist
the flow of the mixture [4]. The probability of forming such net-
work structures increases as the wollastonite content increases.
Fig. 2(b) presents the initial and final setting times of each mix-
ture. Regardless of the wollastonite content, the GP series mixtures
exhibited significantly shorter setting times than S series mixtures.
Solid activator Sand Wollastonite Water
0.08 1.50 0.00 0.43
0.08 1.35 0.15 0.43
0.08 1.20 0.30 0.43
0.08 1.50 0.00 0.36
0.08 1.50 0.10 0.36
0.08 1.50 0.20 0.36
As the activator content is constant in both S and GP series
(Table 1), the lower water content in GP series mixtures translates
to higher alkalinity in GP series as compared to S series. Therefore,
the dissolution rate of amorphous geopolymer precursors would
be higher in GP series mixtures, which accelerates the geopolymer-
ization reaction, thereby results in their shorter setting times as
compared to S series mixtures [2,5]. Moreover, previous studies
reported that wollastonite is partially dissolved in alkaline med-
ium and the dissolution rate increased as the alkalinity increased
[6]. Additional soluble calcium released from the wollastonite
reacts rapidly with Si and Al to form the geopolymeric gel, and thus
results in shorter setting time of GP series mixtures [7].
Fig. 3 presents the compressive and flexural strengths of each
mixture. Depending on the wollastonite content, the compressive
and flexural strengths of GP series mixtures were 41–45% and
19–66% higher than those of S series mixtures, respectively. This
is because of the lower water content of GP series mixtures, con-
sidering that all parameters are identical between S and GP series
except the water content (Table 1) [2,3,5].
As shown in Fig. 3(a), the compressive strength of S10 mixture
(with 10% wollastonite replacement) was 17% higher than that of
S0 mixture (with no wollastonite). However, the compressive
strength of S20 mixture (with 20% wollastonite replacement) was
14% lower than that of S10 mixture. Nevertheless, it should be
noted that the compressive strengths of S20 and S0 mixtures were
comparable. This pattern is also true in GP series mixtures. Com-
pared with S0 and GP0 mixtures, the increase in the compressive
strength of S10 and GP10 mixtures is attributed to the addition
of wollastonite (10% by mass) that enhances the microstructure
of geopolymer matrix through mechanical interlocking of unre-
acted wollastonite particles and bonding to geopolymeric gel [6].
However, further increase of the wollastonite content to 20% by
 S.H. Bong et al. / Materials Letters 263 (2020) 127236 3

Fig. 2. (a) Workability and (b) setting times of the ‘one-part’ fly ash-slag blended geopolymer mortars.

Fig. 3. (a) Compressive strength and (b) flexural strength of the ‘one-part’ geopolymer mixtures. (Note: the numerical values indicate the average strengths).

mass in GP20 and S20 mixtures increases the amount of unreacted
wollastonite particles situated within the geopolymer matrix,
which could disrupt the geopolymeric gel network and lead to a
weaker matrix with lower compressive strength as compared to
that of GP10 and S10 mixtures [6].
As shown in Fig. 3(b), the flexural strength of S series mixtures
significantly increased as the wollastonite content increased. The
needle-like wollastonite particles partially dissolved in the alkaline
medium and ultimately bonded to the geopolymeric gel, which
reinforced the geopolymer matrix and increased the flexural
capacity of the mixture [6,8]. It should be noted that the flexural
strength of S20 mixture (with 20% wollastonite replacement) was
43% higher than that of S0 mixture (with no wollastonite), while
the compressive strength of S20 mixture was comparable to that
of S0 mixture. However, replacement of the geopolymer precursors
by wollastonite did not improve the flexural strength of GP series
mixtures. This is because the wollastonite particles could be highly
etched in GP series mixtures due to their higher alkaline environ-
ment as compared to S series mixtures. Thus, the in GP series mix-
tures wollastonite particles may not be able to efficiently reinforce
the geopolymer matrix against bending, as compared to S series
mixtures.
4. Conclusion
This study reported the fresh and hardened properties of a one-
part geopolymer mortar incorporating wollastonite as partial
replacements of either sand (in S series mixtures) or geopolymer
precursors (in GP series mixtures). The following specific conclu-
sions are drawn:
1) The flexural strength of the mixture containing 20% wollas-
tonite as sand replacement (S20 mixture) was 43% higher
than that of the mixture with no wollastonite (S0 mixture),
while the compressive strength of S20 mixture was compa-
rable to that of S0 mixture. However, using wollastonite as
geopolymer precursor replacement did not have any effect
on the flexural strength of the mixtures.
4 S.H. Bong et al. / Materials Letters 263 (2020) 127236
2) The compressive strength of the mixture containing 10%
wollastonite was 17% higher than that of the mixture with
no wollastonite. The compressive strength reduced as the
wollastonite content increased to 20%. This is true in both
S and GP series mixtures.
3) The workability and setting times of the mixtures greatly
reduced as the wollastonite content increased. This is true
in both S and GP series mixtures.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
Authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the support by
the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP170103521,
Linkage Infrastructure Grant LE170100168, and Discovery Early
Career Researcher Award DE180101587.
References
[1] M.A. Wahab, I.A. Latif, M. Kohail, A. Almasry, The use of Wollastonite to enhance
the mechanical properties of mortar mixes, Constr. Build. Mater. 152 (2017)
304–309.
[2] P. Duxson, A. Fernández-Jiménez, J.L. Provis, G.C. Lukey, A. Palomo, J.S. van
Deventer, Geopolymer technology: the current state of the art, J. Mater. Sci. 42
(9) (2007) 2917–2933.
[3] B. Nematollahi, J. Sanjayan, F.U.A. Shaikh, Synthesis of heat and ambient cured
one-part geopolymer mixes with different grades of sodium silicate, Ceram. Int.
41 (4) (2015) 5696–5704.
[4] M. Cao, L. Xu, C. Zhang, Rheology, fiber distribution and mechanical properties
of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) whisker reinforced cement mortar, Compos. Part
A Appl. Sci. Manuf. 90 (2016) 662–669.
[5] P. Chindaprasirt, P. De Silva, K. Sagoe-Crentsil, S. Hanjitsuwan, Effect of SiO2 and
Al2O3 on the setting and hardening of high calcium fly ash-based geopolymer
systems, J. Mater. Sci. 47 (12) (2012) 4876–4883.
[6] C.K. Yip, G.C. Lukey, J.L. Provis, J.S. van Deventer, Effect of calcium silicate
sources on geopolymerisation, Cem. Concr. Res. 38 (4) (2008) 554–564.
[7] W. Lee, J. Van Deventer, The effect of ionic contaminants on the early-age
properties of alkali-activated fly ash-based cements, Cem. Concr. Res. 32 (4)
(2002) 577–584.
[8] D.M. Nurjaya, S. Astutiningsih, A. Zulfia, Thermal effect on flexural strength of
geopolymer matrix composite with alumina and wollastonite as fillers, Int. J.
Technol. 6 (3) (2015) 462–470.