Experimental study on the synthesis and characterization of aplite rock-based geopolymers

Abstract

This paper presents a new method for geopolymer synthesis of ground aplite rock. The resulting geopolymers were easy to manufacture and exhibited promising mechanical properties. Compressive strength testing, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscope analyzes were performed. The results indicated that in manufacturing, the aplite-based geopolymers, potassium-containing systems gave noticeable improvements in comparison with sodium-containing systems. Rheological behavior of the geopolymeric slurry showed non-Newtonian behavior. The Bingham and Herschel–Bulkley models were selected to simulate the viscosities of the slurries. The Bingham model fitted to the measured data with an average deviation of 1.65 (lb_f/100 ft²) while the Herschel–Bulkley model showed large deviations from the experimental data.

Keywords:

• aplite rock
• geopolymer
• zeolite
• rheology

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Research Council of Norway, ConocoPhillips, Det norske oljeselskap, Statoil, Talisman, TOTAL and Wintershall for financing the work through the research centre DrillWell – Drilling and Well Centre for Improved Recovery, a research cooperation between IRIS, NTNU, SINTEF, and UiS. A special thanks to the Swiss-Norwegian beamlines (SNBL) at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) for providing beamtime and technical support during the experiment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.