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. 2016 Apr 26;9(5):312.
doi: 10.3390/ma9050312.

Utilization of Mineral Wools as Alkali-Activated Material Precursor

Juho Yliniemi  1 , Paivo Kinnunen  2 , Pasi Karinkanta  3 , Mirja Illikainen  4
Affiliations

Utilization of Mineral Wools as Alkali-Activated Material Precursor

Juho Yliniemi et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

Mineral wools are the most common insulation materials in buildings worldwide. However, mineral wool waste is often considered unrecyclable because of its fibrous nature and low density. In this paper, rock wool (RW) and glass wool (GW) were studied as alkali-activated material precursors without any additional co-binders. Both mineral wools were pulverized by a vibratory disc mill in order to remove the fibrous nature of the material. The pulverized mineral wools were then alkali-activated with a sodium aluminate solution. Compressive strengths of up to 30.0 MPa and 48.7 MPa were measured for RW and GW, respectively, with high flexural strengths measured for both (20.1 MPa for RW and 13.2 MPa for GW). The resulting alkali-activated matrix was a composite-type in which partly-dissolved fibers were dispersed. In addition to the amorphous material, sodium aluminate silicate hydroxide hydrate and magnesium aluminum hydroxide carbonate phases were identified in the alkali-activated RW samples. The only crystalline phase in the GW samples was sodium aluminum silicate. The results of this study show that mineral wool is a very promising raw material for alkali activation.

Keywords: alkali activation; geopolymer; glass wool; mineral wool; mmmf: man-made mineral fibre; rock wool.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure A1
Figure A1
Stressing curves of studied mineral wool-based geopolymers under bending and compression. Each of the graphs show results of three or four different samples, which are indicated by different color.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Photograph and FESEM images of (a) rock wool (RW); and (b) glass wool (GW) before and after grinding.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Particle size distributions of pulverized rock wool (RW) and glass wool (GW).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The compressive and flexural strength of each prepared sample. The bars show the average of at least three samples measured and the error represent the confidence interval for means at 95% confidence level.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The deformation type of the alkali activated rock wool (RW) and glass wool (GW) samples.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Secondary electron image of the fracture surface of (a) the rock wool (RW); and (b) glass wool (GW) geopolymer samples. On the left side of the images is a general look of the surface and on the right side of the images is a more detailed image showing the composite-type structure.
Figure 6
Figure 6
X-ray diffractograms of the (a) rock wool (RW); (b) glass wool (GW), and the alkali-activated samples.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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