Construction and Building Materials 369 (2023) 130597

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Construction and Building Materials

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Role of carbon fiber in the electrothermal behavior and geopolymerization

process of carbon fiber-reinforced FA-GBFS geopolymer composite
Gonghui Gu a, Yaowen Pei a, 1, Tao Ma a, *, Feng Chen a, Jinglin Zhang a, Fang Xu b
a
School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, PR China
b
Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Carbon fiber-reinforced geopolymer composite (CFGC) can be used as the energy conversion layer of airport
Carbon fiber pavement, thus converting electromagnetic energy into heat energy via induction heating technology to melt
FA-GBFS geopolymer composite snow and ice on pavement surface. In this study, fly ash (FA), granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) and carbon
Electrothermal behavior
fibers were used to prepare carbon fiber-reinforced FA-GBFS geopolymer composite (CFFGC). Then, the modi­
Geopolymerization
Mechanical performance
fication mechanism of carbon fibers on the electrothermal and mechanical properties of CFFGC was studied, in
which important effects arising from the geopolymerization process within CFFGC were focused on. Results show
that the gullies on carbon fiber surface can provide nucleation sites for the geopolymerization and calcium sil­
icate hydration reaction in CFFGC, which accelerates the precipitation of reactive Si(OH)4 and [Al(OH)4]- in the
raw materials and promotes the generation of geopolymer gels and C–S–H gels, thus enhancing the mechanical
performance of CFFGC. In addition, when the carbon fiber dosage reaches 0.4 wt%, a substantial conductive
network is formed inside CFFGC, which shortens the conductive path and greatly improves the charge transfer
capability in CFFGC. Once the carbon fiber dosage exceeds 0.4 wt%, the agglomerated carbon fibers within
CFFGC can intensify the phonon scattering, thus reducing its thermal conductivity.

1. Introduction
1.1. Background
Electromagnetic induction heating technology is promising in
actively removing snow and ice on airport pavement due to its real-time,
efficient and non-destructive characteristics [1]. This technology aims to
convert electromagnetic energy into heat energy by embedding a
conductive coil containing alternating current inside the airport pave­
ment structure and laying an energy conversion layer on airport pave­
ment surface [2]. According to Faraday’s and Joule’s laws, the energy
transfer efficiency of this technology is significantly affected by the
electrothermal performance of the energy conversion layer.
Currently, cement is the main raw material for laying airport pave­
ment. During the production of cement, large amounts of greenhouse
gases are emitted into atmosphere [3,4]. As a potential alternative to
cement, geopolymer is a novel type of cementitious materials with a
three-dimensional network structure [5,6], which is prepared by alkali-
activating silica-alumina solid wastes such as fly ash, slag powder,
metakaolin, etc. at normal pressure and room temperatures (25℃).
Therefore, during the production process of geopolymer, CO2 emission is
close to 0 and a large amount of solid waste is consumed, which presents
clear eco-friendly characteristics. Moreover, the electrical conductivity
of geopolymer is stronger than that of cement, attributing to the pres­
ence of free metal cations inside the geopolymer for charge balancing
[7]. In addition, geopolymer also shows an excellent mechanical per­
formance, with a 28d flexural strength of about 6.7 MPa, due to the
unique Si-O-Al tetrahedral structure [8]. Therefore, it is a promising
approach to adopt carbon fiber-reinforced geopolymer composites
(CFGC) as the energy conversion layer in the airport pavement structure,
so as to improve the energy conversion efficiency during the electro­
magnetic induction heating of airport pavement while meeting the
mechanical requirements of airport pavement.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: gugonghui@seu.edu.cn (G. Gu), yaowenpei@seu.edu.cn (Y. Pei), matao@seu.edu.cn (T. Ma), fengc@seu.edu.cn (F. Chen), zhang_jl@seu.edu.cn
(J. Zhang), xufang@cug.edu.cn (F. Xu).
1
This author and the first author contributed equally to this manuscript.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2023.130597
Received 27 November 2022; Received in revised form 24 January 2023; Accepted 29 January 2023
Available online 7 February 2023
0950-0618/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
G. Gu et al.
1.2. Review on the carbon fiber-reinforced geopolymer composites
Serving as the energy conversion layer of airport pavement, the
mechanical and electrothermal properties of CFGC are of vital
importance.
For the electrothermal properties of CFGC, the dispersion, arrange­
ment and dosage of carbon fibers significantly affect the formation of
effective conductive network in the matrix, and thus the electrothermal
performance of CFGC [9]. This is mainly due to the large aspect ratio of
carbon fibers, which can provide a convenient pathway for the electron
transition and charge migration, thus lowering the percolation threshold
of the composite and enhancing its internal conductive network [10]. In
addition, the shape anisotropy of carbon fibers can adjust the distribu­
tion of microscopic electric field within the composite, thus improving
the electromagnetic polarization [11]. At present, there are three pri­
mary theories to explain the electric-conductive mechanism of carbon
fiber-reinforced composites: the conductive path theory, the tunneling
effect theory, and the electric field emission theory [12]. Conductive
path theory suggests that the electric current channels can only be
generated when the electric-conductive particles touch each other to
form the chain-like paths. The tunneling effect proposes that when the
gap between electric-conductive particles is small, the connection be­
tween electric currents can be achieved through the electron transitions
caused by thermal vibrations. The electric field emission theory in­
dicates that the electric-conductive particles can generate an emitted
electric field under the action of an external electric field, allowing
electrons to cross the potential barrier to generate the electric current.
The above theories can basically explain the occurrence of electric-
conductive behavior within carbon fiber-reinforced composites,
whereas the electric-conductive path types within different matrices are
different [13]. As such, the electric-conductive mechanism of CFGC still
remains unclear and needs to be further studied.
The current studies on the mechanical performance of CFGC are
mainly focused on the interfacial contact between carbon fiber and
geopolymer matrix [14,15]. It has been reported that the carbon fibers
can result in the bridging effect within the geopolymer matrix, which
can induce the direction of internal stress within the CFGC, thus sup­
pressing the inelastic volume expansion during compression [16]. Then,
due to the contribution of carbon fibers, the fracture mode of CFGC will
gradually transition from brittle damage to ductile damage [17,18].
According to the adsorption strength at the interface between the carbon
fiber and the matrix, Farhan et al. [19] further pointed out that the
failure modes of carbon fibers within the CFGC can be classified into
“fiber pull-out” and “fiber breakage”, emphasizing that the damage
energy consumed by “fiber pull-out” is higher than that consumed by
“fiber breakage”. In addition, aligning the carbon fibers along the same
orientation within CFGC can also improve the flexural strength of CFGC
via enhancing the interfacial contact between carbon fibers and geo­
polymer matrix during the flexural test [20]. At a smaller molecular
level, Li et al. [21] also enhanced the interfacial interaction between
carbon fibers and geopolymer matrix by grafting oxygen-containing
functional groups on the surface of carbon fibers and allowing the
oxygen-containing functional groups to generate chemical bonds with
the geopolymer matrix.
Unlike the above analytical perspective, Chindaprasirt et al. [22]
pointed out that since carbon fiber is an inert chemically material, it may
disperse the fly ash particles, thus promoting the formation of precursors
and intensifying the geopolymerization degree. Akbar et al. [23] also
indicated that the gullies on the surface of carbon fibers may provide
nucleation sites for the geopolymerization of CFGC, thus intensifying the
generation of reaction products and enhancing the mechanical proper­
ties of CFGC. However, there is a lack of specific data to support the
relationship between carbon fibers and geopolymerization within CFGC.
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Construction and Building Materials 369 (2023) 130597
1.3. Aims and organization of this study
This study aims to analyze the enhancement mechanism of carbon
fiber on the electrothermal and mechanical properties of geopolymer
matrix from the perspective of geopolymerization process, so as to
provide theoretical guidance for the design of energy conversion layer
used for the airport pavement induction heating.
The organization of this study is as follows. Firstly, fly ash (FA) and
granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) were activated with a composite
alkali activator to prepare the geopolymer matrix, and carbon fibers
were thereafter added into the geopolymer matrix with different
amounts to produce carbon fiber-reinforced FA-GBFS geopolymer
composite (CFFGC) specimens. Subsequently, the geopolymerization
degree of CFFGC at different carbon fiber dosages was characterized by
conducting XPS, XRD, FTIR, SEM tests on the CFFGC specimens with
various carbon fiber dosages. Specifically, the evolution trends of key
indicators of CFFGC specimens at different carbon fiber dosages, such as
microscopic morphology, binding energy of Si and Al, type and con­
centration of chemical reaction products, were analyzed. Finally, the
enhancement mechanism of carbon fiber on the FA-GBFS geopolymer
matrix was revealed according to the acquired insights over the geo­
polymerization process.
2. Methodology
2.1. Raw materials
Carbon fiber was provided by Nanjing XFNANO Materials Tech Co.,
ltd with its basic material parameters revealed in Table 1. FA and GBFS
were purchased from Wuhan SinoCem Smartec Co., ltd with diameters
of 0.045 mm and 0.035 mm, respectively. Based on X-ray fluorescence
results, the primary components of FA are SiO2 (51.2 wt%), Al2O3 (29.9
wt%), and CaO (4.7 wt%), while GBFS is mainly composed of SiO2 (26.4
wt%), Al2O3 (13.1 wt%), and CaO (48.5 wt%). According to the X-ray
diffraction (XRD) spectra shown in Fig. 1, the main mineral components
of FA are quartz and mullite, and obvious calcite and gehlenite peaks can
be found in the GBFS spectrum. Moreover, clear amorphous dispersion
peaks can be observed on the XRD spectra of both FA and GBFS, which
indicates the presence of geopolymization precursors within FA and
GBFS. The water glass used in this study is a kind of transparent liquid
produced by Jiashan Yourui Refractory Material Co., ltd, and is mainly
composed of SiO2 (27.3 wt%) and Na2O (8.54 wt%). NaOH was supplied
by Aladdin Co., ltd, and its purity is higher than 97 %.
2.2. Mix proportion and specimen preparation
2.2.1. Mix proportion
CFFGC was prepared by mixing carbon fibers into fresh alkali-
activated FA-GBFS paste. The carbon fiber dosage was determined ac­
cording to the total solid content of alkali-activated FA-GBFS paste,
ranging from 0.1 wt% to 0.6 wt% in increments of 0.1 wt%.
The alkali-activated FA-GBFS paste was produced based on our
previous study [8], activating FA and GBFS with the composite alkali
activator, which was prepared by dissolving 193 g NaOH into 1000 g
water glass. The concentration of the composite alkali activator is 42.58
wt%. During the preparation alkali-activated FA-GBFS paste, SiO2/
Al2O3 molar ratio and water–solid ratio were fixed at 3.8 and 0.3,
respectively. The total solid content included the mass of FA, GBFS, and
the solid content of composite alkali activator (the mass of NaOH, and
the mass of Na2O and SiO2 in the water glass), where the solids content
of composite alkali activator was determined to be 14 % of the total solid
content. The specific mix design of CFFGC in this study are shown in
Table 2.
2.2.2. Specimen preparation
Due to the significant heat release in the dissolution process of
G. Gu et al. Construction and Building Materials 369 (2023) 130597

Table 1
Basic material parameters of carbon fiber.
Carbon content Tensile strength Tensile modulus Stacking density Resistivity Diameter Length
3
95 % 3530 MPa 230 GPa 0.4 g/cm 1.3 Ω•cm 7 μm 10 mm

CFFGC specimens (4 cm * 4 cm * 4 cm) with the same carbon fiber

dosage. The compressive and flexural strength were tested according to
Chinese standard GB/T 17671-2021 [26].

2.3.2. Pore structure analysis

Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) (Autopore V9620) was adop­
ted to measure the pore size distribution and porosity of CFFGC speci­
mens with different carbon fiber dosages. Before the MIP test, specimens
with a size of 1 cm * 1 cm * 1 cm was taken from the center of CFFGC
specimens and dried in an oven at 105 ◦ C for 12 h [27]. During the test,
the pressure was gradually increased from 0.52 psi to 30,000 psi and the
relationship curve between the cumulative intrusion volume and the
pressure was recorded.

2.3.3. Geopolymerization degree analysis

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD),
and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) tests were used to
characterize the geopolymerization degree of CFFGC under different
carbon fiber dosages. CFFGC powder was dried in an oven at 105 ◦ C for
12 h for the above tests.
Fig. 1. X-ray diffraction spectra of FA and GBFS used in this study.

(a) XPS test: Thermo Scientific K-Alpha was used for XPS test under
Table 2 an excitation source of monochromatic Al Kα radiation (1486.6
Mix design of CFFGC. eV). The spot diameter was 400 μm. High-resolution spectra of Si,
SiO2/Al2O3 Fly ash GBFS Composite alkali Water Carbon
Al, and C were obtained via 5 cycles of scanning under a pass
molar ratio (g) (g) activator (g) (g) fiber (g) energy of 50 eV and a step of 0.1 eV. Charge correction of all
spectra was conducted based on the binding energy of C 1 s
3.8 386.5 473.5 328.75 111.25 0
3.8 386.5 473.5 328.75 111.25 1 (284.8ev).
3.8 386.5 473.5 328.75 111.25 2 (b) XRD test: Rigaku SmartLab SE was adopted for XRD measurement
3.8 386.5 473.5 328.75 111.25 3 under the Cu Kα radiation. The scanning range was from 10◦ to
3.8 386.5 473.5 328.75 111.25 4 80◦ with a speed of 1◦ /min.
3.8 386.5 473.5 328.75 111.25 5
3.8 386.5 473.5 328.75 111.25 6
(c) FTIR test: KBr pellet method was used for FTIR test via a Thermo
Scientific Nicolet iS20 with a resolution of 4 cm− 1. The wave­
number range was from 400 cm− 1 to 4000 cm− 1.
composite alkali activator preparation, a large amount of free water was
evaporated and needed to be supplemented after the composite alkali 3. Results and discussions
activator had cooled to the room temperature (25 ◦ C). FA, GBFS, com­
posite alkali activator, and water were mixed in the agitating pan and 3.1. Electrothermal performance of CFFGC with different carbon fiber
stirred for 4 min, after the preparation of composite alkali activator. dosages
Next, the carbon fibers were added into the fresh alkali-activated FA-
GBFS paste, and the mixture was stirred for 2 min to prepare CFFGC. Fig. 2 and Fig. 5 illustrate the electrical resistance and thermal
Finally, the fresh CFFGC was poured into molds and placed in the conductivity of CFFGC specimens with different carbon fiber dosages to
standard curing box for 28 days curing (Temperature: 25 ◦ C; Humidity: characterize the electrothermal performance of CFFGC.
95 %).
3.1.1. Electrical resistance of CFFGC
2.3. Performance test methods According to Fig. 2, when the amount of carbon fiber is increased,
the electrical resistance of CFFGC presents a sharp decrease trend until
All tests in this section were conducted after specimens were cured 0.4 wt% carbon fiber dosage, after which the electrical resistance change
for 28 d. of CFFGC tends to level off. This can be mainly attributed to that carbon
fibers can help to reduce the charge transfer resistance inside CFFGC,
2.3.1. Electrothermal and mechanical performance tests thus constructing a more uniform distribution of electric field within the
Cubic CFFGC specimen with a side length of 4 cm was adopted for geopolymer matrix [28].
the electrical resistance measurement via a Tonghui 2830 LCR meter at Saafi [29] and Payakaniti [30] have reported that since geopolymer
1 kHz based on Chinese standard GB/T 31838–2021 [24]. During the is a kind of superionic conductors, its internal electrical-conductive path
test, two pieces of conductive copper paper were closely covered on the and electrical-conductive efficiency are mainly determined by the
upper and lower surfaces of the specimen, serving as the parallel elec­ displacement of Na+, which has also been mentioned in our previous
trodes. Then the two parallel electrodes were clamped by two test study [8]. However, unlike geopolymer matrix, the movement of elec­
clamps of LCR meter for the test. Thermal conductivity was measured by trons contributes primarily to the electrical conductivity of carbon fiber
a Hot Disk TPS 2500S in accordance with Chinese standard GB/T 32064- [31]. Consequently, because the electron motion velocity is higher than
2015 [25]. When testing, the test probe needed to be clamped by two that of Na+ within the geopolymer matrix, the carbon fibers within

3
G. Gu et al.
Fig. 2. Electrical resistance of CFFGC with different carbon fiber dosages.
CFFGC can significantly shorten the conductive path of composite, thus
reducing its electrical resistance. However, according to Fig. 3 (a), when
the carbon fiber dosage is low (0.1 wt%), carbon fibers within CFFGC are
separated from each other and no apparent fiber-bridging is observed. At
this moment, the carbon fibers and the geopolymer matrix jointly
contribute to the charge conduction inside the CFFGC, thus leading to a
larger electrical resistance of CFFGC specimen with 0.1 wt% carbon
fiber dosage compared with other groups. Further, as carbon fiber
dosage increases gradually, the carbon fibers inside CFFGC can contact
with each other as shown in Fig. 3 (b)-(d), which forms a conductive
network inside CFFGC with carbon fibers as the main medium, thus
significantly reducing the charge transfer difficulty and as well as the
electrical resistance of CFFGC. In addition, similar to previous reports,
the electrical resistance of CFFGC no longer shows obvious change with
the increase of carbon fiber dosage after the carbon fiber dosage reaches
the percolation threshold (0.4 wt%).
To further illustrate the electrically conductive mechanism of CFFGC
with different carbon fiber dosages, the equivalent circuit diagrams of
Fig. 3. Carbon fiber distributions within CFFGC specimens (1000×); (a) 0.1 wt
% CF dosage; (b) 0.2 wt% CF dosage; (c) 0.3 wt% CF dosage; (d) 0.4 wt%
CF dosage.
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Construction and Building Materials 369 (2023) 130597
geopolymer matrix and CFFGC were plotted in Fig. 4 on the basis of
Dong et al. [32] and Li et al. [33]. In Fig. 4, Rg is the electrical resistance
of geopolymer matrix caused by electrolyte solution and reaction
products; Cd is the double-layer capacitance formed on the surface of
geopolymer gels; Rst is the charge transfer resistance within the com­
posite; Rw is the Warburg resistance formed by Na+ diffusion within the
composite; Rcf is the electrical resistance of carbon fiber; and Ccf is the
double-layer capacitance formed at the interface between carbon fiber
and geopolymer matrix. It can be seen from Fig. 4 (b) that when a small
amount of carbon fiber is added into geopolymer matrix, Rg and Rcf are
in parallel connection and together dominate the electrical conductivity
of the CFFGC. At this moment, part of electric currents bypass Rg and
flow through Rcf, thus leading to a reduction in the electrical resistance
of CFFGC compared to that of geopolymer matrix illustrated in Fig. 4 (a).
Further, when carbon fiber dosage is increased to the percolation
threshold, Rcf becomes the dominant factor controlling the electrical
conductivity of CFFGC as shown in Fig. 4 (c). Particularly, at high fre­
quency levels, the electric currents will completely avoid Rg and be
transmitted by Rcf as the only channel, thus significantly reducing the
electrical resistance of CFFGC.
3.1.2. Thermal conductivity of CFFGC
Regarding the thermal conductivity, it can be seen from Fig. 5 that
the thermal conductivity of CFFGC shows a significant reduction trend
with the increase of carbon fiber dosage after the carbon fiber dosage
reaches 0.4 wt%, although it maintains a gradual increasing trend before
that.
The decreasing trend can be mainly attributed to the internal pores
within CFFGC specimens as shown in Fig. 6. The addition of carbon fi­
bers can reduce the workability of geopolymer matrix since a part of free
water tends to adhere to the carbon fiber surface rather than participate
in the geopolymerization [34]. Furthermore, in this study, when the
carbon fiber dosage is more than 0.4 wt%, the carbon fibers agglomer­
ated and the geopolymer paste could not flow through the inside of the
agglomerated carbon fibers, thus introducing gas within CFFGC, which
forms the closed and connected pores shown in Fig. 6 (e) and (f) after
setting and hardening. The thermal conductivity of closed pores is close
to zero [35], which leads to a decrease in the thermal conductivity of
CFFGC. In addition, the phonon transfer efficiency across the interface
within the composite is related to the material moduli at both sides of
the interface, and the closer the moduli of the two materials are, the
higher the phonon transfer efficiency at the interface [36]. However,
since the modulus of air at standard atmospheric pressure is much lower
than that of carbon fiber and geopolymer matrix, significant scattering
of phonons can be generated in the pores of CFFGC, which in turn leads
to an increase in the path of phonon transfer, thus reducing the thermal
conductivity of CFFGC.
The MIP test was further adopted to analyze the pore structure of
CFFGC specimens so as to support the above analysis about the thermal
conductivity [37]. Fig. 7 and Table 3 present the cumulative intrusion
curve and porosity of CFFGC specimens, respectively.
It can be seen clearly from Fig. 7 and Table 3 that the cumulative
intrusion volume (porosity) of CFFGC specimens does not increase
obviously when the carbon fiber dosage is increased from 0.1 wt% to 0.4
wt%, which indicates that there are no obvious pores caused by the
agglomeration of carbon fibers within the CFFGC when the carbon fiber
dosage is less than 0.4 wt%. However, when the carbon fiber dosage is
added to 0.5 wt% and 0.6 wt%, the cumulative intrusion volume and
porosity of CFFGC are increased by 15.78 % and 22.91 %, respectively,
compared with that when the carbon fiber dosage is 0.4 wt%. At this
time, the carbon fiber agglomeration has occurred within CFFGC, which
leads to the increase of porosity, thus aggravating the scattering of
phonons and weakening the thermal conductivity of CFFGC.
G. Gu et al.
Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit diagrams of CFFGC; (a) Geopolymer matrix; (b) CFFGC with low carbon fiber dosage; (c) CFFGC after reaching percolation threshold.
Fig. 5. Thermal conductivity of CFFGC with different carbon fiber dosages.
3.2. Geopolymerization degree of CFFGC with different carbon fiber
dosages
3.2.1. Mechanical performance of CFFGC specimens
Fig. 8 shows the mechanical properties of CFFGC specimens with
different carbon fiber dosages, which reflects the influence of carbon
fiber dosage on the geopolymerization degree of CFFGC at a macro­
scopic level. Fig. 8 clearly illustrates that as the carbon fiber dosage
increases, the 28d compressive strength and 28d flexural strength of
CFFGC both present a trend of first increasing and then decreasing,
reaching a peak at 0.4 wt% of carbon fiber dosage.
The decreasing trend of the mechanical properties of CFFGC in Fig. 8
can be mainly attributed to the development of internal pore structure
within CFFGC. Fig. 9 presents the pore size distribution of CFFGC
specimens with various carbon fiber dosages. Combined with Fig. 9 and
Table 3, when the carbon fiber dosage exceeds 0.4 wt%, the porosity and
the number of harmful pores (greater than200 nm) of the CFFGC spec­
imens both present an increasing trend with the increase of carbon fiber
dosage. It indicates that the carbon fibers have agglomerated together
within CFFGC at this time, which in turn introduces a large amount of
gas inside CFFGC, thus reducing the mechanical properties. However,
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Construction and Building Materials 369 (2023) 130597
when the carbon fiber dosage is less than 0.4 wt%, with the increase of
carbon fiber dosage, the porosity of CFFGC specimens does not change
significantly, and the number of harmful pores shows a drop trend from
46 % to 38 %, which is beneficial for improving the mechanical prop­
erties of CFFGC. The decrease of harmful pores percentage indicates that
the carbon fibers may have accelerated the generation of gels inside
CFFGC through some special methods at this time, which will be elab­
orated in the following discussions.
This increasing trend in the mechanical properties of CFFGC can be
attributed primarily to both physical and chemical factors. On the one
hand, since the modulus of carbon fibers is higher than that of geo­
polymer matrix, a stronger energy is required to pull out or break the
carbon fibers within CFFGC during the tension and compression of
CFFGC compared to that of pure geopolymer matrix, which improves
the mechanical properties of CFFGC. Fig. 10 shows the microscopic
morphology of broken CFFGC specimens, from which obvious fiber
grooves and fractured carbon fibers formed by pulling can be found,
which indicates that carbon fibers within CFFGC specimen shared a
certain amount of damage energy when the CFFGC specimen was
compressed.
On the other hand, carbon fibers have high surface energy due to the
presence of fine gullies on its surface, which may enhance the geo­
polymerization degree by improving the system energy of CFFGC
[38–40]. Specifically, after mixing and stirring, due to the large specific
surface area and high surface energy of carbon fibers, some of FA and
GBFS particles are adsorbed in the carbon fiber gullies, thus may
accelerating the geopolymerization process and improving the yield of
reaction products due to the nucleation effect.
Fig. 11 presents the morphology of carbon fibers inside CFFGC
specimens with different carbon fiber dosage. According to Fig. 11, a
large amount of white gel substances can be observed near the gullies on
the carbon fiber surface of each CFFGC specimen. After energy disper­
sive spectrometer (EDS) analysis, the main constituent elements of these
white gel substances are determined as Si, Al, O, and Ca, which indicates
that these white gel substances are geopolymer gels and C–S–H gels
generated by geopolymerization and calcium silicate hydration reac­
tion, respectively. The SEM-EDS analysis provides a preliminary indi­
cation that the reaction products do exist within the carbon fiber gullies.
However, whether these reaction products are caused by the accelera­
tion of geopolymerization degree requires further analysis.
G. Gu et al. Construction and Building Materials 369 (2023) 130597

Fig. 6. Pore structure morphology of CFFGC specimens (250×); (a) 0.1 wt% CF dosage; (b) 0.2 wt% CF dosage; (c) 0.3 wt% CF dosage; (d) 0.4 wt% CF dosage; (e)
0.5 wt% CF dosage; (f) 0.6 wt% CF dosage.

Fig. 7. Cumulate intrusion curves of CFFGC specimens during MIP test. Fig. 8. 28d compressive and flexural strengths of CFFGC specimens with
different carbon fiber dosages.

Table 3 fiber dosage. This indicates that carbon fibers can promote the genera­
Porosity of typical CFFGC specimens calculated by MIP results. tion of C–S–H gel within CFFGC, which in turn enhances the me­
Carbon fiber 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 chanical properties of CFFGC. In terms of the amorphous phase within
dosage (wt.%) CFFGC, although no significant variation in the amorphous dispersion
Porosity (%) 7.3566 7.4158 7.4932 7.5000 8.6835 9.2183 peaks of CFFGC specimens can be observed in Fig. 12, the content of
amorphous phase inside CFFGC can be obtained by quantitative XRD
analysis, as shown in Table 4. Table 4 clearly shows that the amorphous
3.2.2. XRD analysis of CFFGC specimens phase content within CFFGC gradually increases ranging from 82.41 wt
XRD tests were conducted to further illustrate the effect of carbon % to 89.45 wt%, as the carbon fiber dosage increases from 0.1 wt% to
fibers on the geopolymerization degree of CFFGC, and the results are 0.6 wt%. The amorphous phase within CFFGC is mainly consisted of
shown in Fig. 12. It can be seen clearly from Fig. 12 that the peak in­ unreacted and partially reacted reactive aluminosilicate in the raw
tensities of crystalline phases of CFFGC specimens are reduced materials and newly generated geopolymer gels. It has been reported
compared with that of the crystalline phases in FA, especially the in­ that most of the precursors (almost 90 wt%) are not involved in the
tensity of quartz (# 046–1045). It implies that some of the crystalline geopolymerization [41]. Therefore, the increase of amorphous phase
phases were dissolved in alkaline environment and converted into the content in the CFFGC can only indicate that the carbon fibers acceler­
precursors of geopolymerization, which may improve the geo­ ated the dissolution of raw materials, but whether the carbon fibers
polymerization degree. In addition, due to the contribution of CaO in FA promoted the generation of Si-O-T (T reflects Si or Al) structure needs to
and GBFS, obvious C–S–H (#033-0306) crystalline peaks are observed be further verified with the aid of FTIR and XPS analysis.
in the XRD patterns of CFFGC specimens, and the peak intensity of
C–S–H presents an enhancement trend with the increase of carbon

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G. Gu et al.
Fig. 9. Pore size distribution of CFFGC specimens with different carbon
fiber dosages.
3.2.3. FTIR analysis of CFFGC specimens
Fig. 13 (a) illustrates the FTIR results of CFFGC specimens with
different carbon fiber dosages, where the peaks at 3450 cm− 1 and 1655
cm− 1 are caused by the stretching and bending vibrations of –OH inside
bound water, respectively [42]. The peak near 1382 cm− 1 is the result of
the stretching vibration of O–C–O bond [43], which indicates that
CFFGC specimens have been carbonized in air. The peak at 452 cm− 1
reflects the bending vibration of Si-O bond [43]. It should be noted that
the peak near 990 cm− 1 is caused by the asymmetric stretching vibration
of the Si-O-T (T reflects Si or Al) bond in the geopolymer gels [44],
which reflects the geopolymerization degree of CFFGC. Fig. 13 (b)
clearly indicates that the peak intensity at 990 cm− 1 caused by the
asymmetric stretching vibration of Si-O-T bond gradually enhances with
the increase of carbon fiber dosage.
It can also be found that the peak position at 990 cm− 1 generally
tends to shift toward the lower wavenumber when the carbon fiber
dosage is added from 0.1 wt% to 0.6 wt%, which can be attributed to
that as the geopolymerization proceeds, Al will enter the tetrahedral
structure to replace Si and generate the Si-O-Al structure. Then, since the
energy of Al is lower than that of Si, the wavenumber of the peak caused
by the asymmetric stretching vibration of Si-O-T bond tends to shift to
the lower wavenumber [45]. The changes of peak intensity and position
indicate that the gullies on the surface of the carbon fibers can indeed
provide nucleation sites for the geopolymerization, thus promoting the
Fig. 10. Microscopic morphology of broken CFFGC specimens (1000×); (a) 0.1 wt% carbon fiber dosage; (b) 0.2 wt% carbon fiber dosage; (c) 0.4 wt% carbon
fiber dosage.
7
Construction and Building Materials 369 (2023) 130597
generation of geopolymer gels and enhancing the mechanical properties
of CFFGC. The above discussion can also be verified from Fig. 13 (c) and
(d), which present the peaks representing the stretching and bending
vibrations of –OH. As seen in Fig. 13 (c) and (d), the peak intensities at
3450 cm− 1 and 1655 cm− 1 are both gradually enhanced with the in­
crease of carbon fiber dosage in CFFGC, which indicates that the amount
of bound water in the CFFGC has been changed under the effect of
carbon fibers. Specifically, the increase of carbon fiber dosage provides
more nucleation sites for the chemical reactions within CFFGC, which
promotes the generation of geopolymer gels and C–S–H gels. Then the
synthesis of C–S–H gels results in the conversion of partial free water
into bound water inside the C–S–H gels.
3.2.4. XPS analysis of CFFGC specimens
Since the binding energy variation of an element is closely related to
its atomic state and can reflect the structure of the compound in which
the element is involved, XPS tests were used in this study to analyze the
chemical states of Si and Al within CFFGC specimens. The XPS test re­
sults are shown in Figs. 14 and 15. According to Liu et al. [46] and Su
et al. [47], the Si 2p peak can be mainly decomposed into two peaks, Si-
O-T and Si–O–H, as shown in Fig. 14. The binding energy of the Si-O-T
peak is between 101.29 eV and 101.99 eV, and that of the Si–O–H peak
is between 102.49 eV and 103.55 eV. Fig. 14 clearly illustrates that as
the carbon fiber dosage of CFFGC increases, the area of Si–O–H peak
gradually decreases from 55.06 % to 33.52 % in contrast to the
increasing trend for the Si-O-T peak area ranging from 44.96 % to 66.48
%. This can be mainly attributed to the fact that Si(OH)4 and [Al(OH)4]-
are continuously transformed into Si-O-Al structure during the process
of geopolymerization. Then, the Si–O–H peak in the XPS spectrum is
gradually converted to Si-O-T peak due to the consumption of Si(OH)4
monomer and the generation of silicon-aluminum tetrahedron, which
further indicates that carbon fibers promote the geopolymerization of
CFFGC and accelerate the conversion of precursors to geopolymer gels.
In addition, Fig. 15 also shows that the binding energy of Al 2p in
CFFGC shows an obvious increasing trend as the carbon fiber dosage of
CFFGC increases. Zhang et al. [48] and Chen et al. [49] have pointed out
that the geopolymerization degree of geopolymer composite is posi­
tively correlated with the binding energy of Al 2p in them, which further
support the above analysis.
4. Conclusions
The motivation of this study was to reveal the influence of carbon
fiber on the geopolymerization process and electrothermal performance
of the CFFGC, which could be of essential importance for the material
design of energy conversion layer of airport pavement. By analyzing the
types of reaction products and the atomic chemical states in the CFFGC
with different carbon fiber dosages, the following conclusions can be
obtained.
G. Gu et al. Construction and Building Materials 369 (2023) 130597

Fig. 11. Reaction products attached to carbon fibers within CFFGC specimens with different carbon fiber dosages.

Table 4
Amorphous phase contents of CFFGC specimens calculated from XRD patterns.
Carbon fiber dosage (wt. 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
%)

Amorphous phase content 82.41 84.95 86.88 87.43 89.11 89.45

(wt.%)

raw materials in an alkaline environment is promoted, thus

accelerating the generation of precursors for the geo­
polymerization in CFFGC.
(2) By increasing of carbon fiber dosage from 0.1 wt% to 0.4 wt%,
the carbon fibers within the CFFGC can gradually accelerate the
formation of C–S–H gels and geopolymer gels. As a result, the
number of harmful pores within the CFFGC will gradually
decrease due to the filling effect of the reaction products, which is
helpful in enhancing the mechanical properties and thermal
conductivity of the CFFGC.
(3) When the carbon fiber dosage exceeds 0.4 wt%, the carbon fibers
Fig. 12. XRD results of CFFGC specimens with different carbon fiber dosages. inside the CFFGC will agglomerate, which introduces air inside
the geopolymer matrix and forms pores after setting and hard­
(1) Due to the large specific surface area and high surface energy of ening. These pores can not only reduce the mechanical properties
the gullies on the surface of carbon fiber, nucleation sites for FA of the CFFGC, but also intensify the phonon scattering inside the
and GBFS particles are provided. As a result, the dissolution of composite, thus reducing its thermal conductivity.

8
G. Gu et al. Construction and Building Materials 369 (2023) 130597

Fig. 13. FTIR results of CFFGC specimens with different carbon fiber contents; (a) FTIR spectra of CFFGC specimens; (b) Peak at 990 cm− 1; (c) Peak at 3450 cm− 1; (d)
Peak at 1655 cm− 1;

Fig. 14. Photoelectron spectra of Si 2p in CFFGC specimens with different carbon fiber contents; (a) 0.1 wt% CF; (b) 0.2 wt% CF; (c) 0.3 wt% CF; (d) 0.4 wt% CF; (e)
0.5 wt% CF; (f) 0.6 wt% CF.

(4) Due to the higher velocity of electron movement than that of Na+
in the geopolymer matrix, carbon fibers can significantly shorten
the conductive path within the CFFGC, thus reducing its electrical
resistance. For the CFFGC in this study, the percolation threshold
of carbon fiber is 0.4 wt%. Lower resistivity and higher thermal
conductivity can enhance the conversion efficiency of electro­
magnetic energy to thermal energy, thus improving the ability of
airport pavement to melt snow and ice.

9
G. Gu et al.
Fig. 15. Photoelectron spectra of Al 2p in CFFGC specimens with different carbon fiber contents; (a) 0.1 wt% CF; (b) 0.2 wt% CF; (c) 0.3 wt% CF; (d) 0.4 wt% CF; (e)
0.5 wt% CF; (f) 0.6 wt% CF.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Gonghui Gu: Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing
– original draft, Writing – review & editing. Yaowen Pei: Investigation,
Data curation, Formal analysis. Tao Ma: Conceptualization, Methodol­
ogy, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Resources, Supervi­
sion. Feng Chen: Validation, Supervision. Jinglin Zhang: Validation.
Fang Xu: Validation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
No data was used for the research described in the article.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Key Research and Develop­
ment Project (2020YFB1600102; 2020YFA0714302), National Natural
Science Foundation of China (51878164; 51922030; 52208430),
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China
(2242022R10059), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
(SBK2021042206), Southeast University “Zhongying Young Scholars”
Project, and Shuangchuang Program of Jiangsu Province
(JSSCBS20210058).
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