Sulfur-polymer matrix composites from particulate wastes: A sustainable route to advanced materials

Sulfur mortars and concretes are high performance composite materials whose main properties are quick setting, high strength, low water absorption and high resistance to acid and basic environments. In addition, such materials allow to use the big amount of sulfur coming from worldwide oil refineries and metallurgical industry.The possibility of using three different by-products coming from raw materials treatment for ceramic industry in sulfur composites has been investigated in this paper. Mechanical properties, microstructure and durability of the sulfur mortars prepared with the above mentioned recycled aggregates have been investigated and compared with those of the relevant mortars samples obtained with normalised sand and cement according to UNI EN 196-1.