Effect of sodium polyacrylate on mechanical properties and microstructure of metakaolin-based geopolymer with different SiO2/Al2O3 ratio

The mechanical properties and microstructure of geopolymer are affected by the molar ratio of SiO2/Al2O3. Meanwhile, organic polymer has the effect of improving the toughness of geopolymer, which depends on the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio of geopolymer inevitably. Therefore, it is important to investigate the effect of the organic polymer on the mechanical properties and microstructure of geopolymer with varying SiO2/Al2O3 ratio for using organic polymer to modify geopolymer. In this work, the SiO2/Al2O3 ratios of metakaolin-based geopolymers are adjusted to 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 by adding silica fume and β-Al2O3, with Na2O/SiO2, H2O/SiO2 being maintained at 0.2, 4.0, respectively. The geopolymers with each SiO2/Al2O3 ratios are modified by addition of 0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.2 and 1.6 wt% of sodium polyacrylate (PAAS).The mechanical properties of these samples are measured and the rate of change is used to characterize the effect of PAAS on the metakalin-based geopolymers. The mechanism is also shown by 29Si NMR, XPS and FTIR. The results show that the effects of polymer on the mechanical properties of metakaolin-based geopolymer are affected by SiO2/Al2O3 ratio and the effect becomes less obvious with SiO2/Al2O3 ratio increasing from 2.0 to 4.0. Incorporation of PAAS can reduce the degree of polymerization of [SiO]4 or [AlO]4 in geopolymer and form the Si‒O‒C bond, which are two main reasons for polymer improving the toughness of geopolymer. But these effects decrease when the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio of geopolymer increases from 2.0 to 4.0, which is corresponding to the effect on the mechanical properties. The toughening effect of organic polymer on geopolymer depends on the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio of geopolymer, and only the geopolymer with lower SiO2/Al2O3 ratio (no more than 2.5 in this work) can be significantly toughening modified by organic polymer. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio of the geopolymer when geopolymer modified by organic polymer is designed.