Recycling of quarry dust for supplementary cementitious materials in low carbon cement

Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117608

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Recycling of quarry dust for supplementary cementitious materials in low carbon cement Yingliang Zhao a,b, Jingping Qiu a,b,⇑, Jun Xing a,b, Xiaogang Sun a,b a b

College of Resources and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China Science and Technology Innovation Center of Smart Water and Resource Environment, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China

h i g h l i g h t s
Quarry dust has been used as SCMs in the production of the low carbon cements.
The incorporation of quarry dust increases the early compressive strength.
The addition of quarry dust does not change the phase assemble of hydration products.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 8 October 2019 Received in revised form 8 November 2019 Accepted 12 November 2019

Keywords: Alkali activated slag Quarry dust Supplementary cementitious materials Filler effect Environmental impacts

a b s t r a c t The main purpose of this study is to investigate the potential of using quarry dust as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) in alkali activated slag and Portland cement synthesis. The incorporation of quarry dust increased the early compressive strength of samples and led to a little detrimental impact on the compressive strength at 28 days curing. From the results of thermogravimetric (TG) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), there was nearly no change in the hydration phase assemble. Mercury intrusion porosimeter (MIP) indicated that the addition of quarry dust by 10–20% increased the porosity but decreased the average pore diameter after curing for 28 days. As a result, quarry dust shows great potential to be used as SCMs for low carbon cement preparation. Ó 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction The world-wide increase in demand of construction compels industries to manufacture more Portland cement, the main cementitious material in the present world. At the same time, it is reported that the production of Portland cement involves 8–9% of the global CO2 emissions and 12–15% of the total energy consumed by the industry [1–5]. On the other hand, the production of Portland cement leads to serious environmental impacts, such as pollution caused by dust. Therefore, it is urgent for the cement industry to take actions to reduce the negative effects on the environment. In the past several decades, alternative technologies have been used to alleviate the environment burdens causing by the cement industries [4], such as using lower carbon content fuel, adding CO2 capture agent and adding high volumes of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). Among these methods, using SCMs seems to be a cost-effective approach and numerous studies con⇑ Corresponding author at: College of Resources and Civil Engineering, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Qiu). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.117608 0950-0618/Ó 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

centrate on it [6]. Generally, SCMs are commonly composed of aluminosilicates which have pozzolanic reactivity that can react with portlandite generated by the cement hydration to form additional cementitious gels [7]. Many industrial byproducts, such as blast furnace slag (BFS), fly ash (FA) and silica fume (SF) have been reported to be used as SCMs with typical substitution levels of 10–30% to improve the mechanical and durability properties of cement [8–11]. BFS seems to be used widely as SCMs due to the rapid developed steel industries in recent years [12]. These industrial byproducts are often recognized to generate low environmental impacts compared to PC clinker production [13]. Therefore, PC with high replacement of SCMs is deemed to be beneficial to reduce the life-cycle environmental impacts. However, there is a lack of examination of the effect of SCMs with inert characters or less pozzolanic reactivity on the mechanical and hydration properties of cement, which is the main purpose of the present study. Furthermore, research and development of substitutive cementitious material is identified as another attractive strategy of sustainable development. As an alternative cementitious material of traditional PC, Ye’elimite, or calcium sulfoaluminate cement could reduce the CO2 emission by over 20% due to the chemical compo-

Y. Zhao et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117608

sition and industrial processing [14]. Carbonated cementitious binders also attracted wide attention due to the rapid strength gain and the sequestration of CO2 when exposed to a CO2 rich environment [15]. Besides, alkali activated materials (AAMs) have been widely discussed as a ‘sustainable cement binder’ [2], could be produced from a wide range of aluminosilicate precursors, such as BFS, FA or metakaolin. Compared with Portland cement, AAMs have superior properties namely quick compressive strength development [16], lower permeability [17], and good resistance to acid and fire attacks [18]. Moreover, very little SOx, NOx, or CO2 are generated in the process of AAMs preparation and it has been reported that the CO2 reduction ratios can increase up to approximately 60% for AAMs preparation [4,19]. Similar to the Portland cement industry, the production of granite experienced a steep growth in recent years, leading to numerous waste generation and severe environmental hazards, mainly as quarry dust. Quarry dust is a by-product generating during the cutting and grinding of stone, which accounts for as much as 80% of the total quantity of stone exploited [20]. As a nonbiodegradable waste, quarry dust will occupy a large area of land for disposal, causing seriously damage to the soil. At the same time, the cost of disposal of quarry dust is increasing due to the decrease in landfill area and rigorous governmental restrictions. Therefore, the quarry industries are trying to find ways for reusing the waste. Similar to quartz dust, quarry dust is generally considered as inert material in the cement hydration [21]. As a result, it shows great potential to use quarry dust as an alternative SCMs in the cement production. The main objective of this study is to investigate feasibility of using quarry dust as SCMs and the influence of quarry dust on the flowability, strength, hydration characteristics and microstructure of alkali activated slag and Portland cement. The results and findings will contribute to the potential utilization of quarry dust in low carbon cement with enhanced physiochemical properties as well as environmentally friendly. 2. Experimental materials and methods 2.1. Materials Commercial Portland cement (PC), ground blast furnace slag (BFS) and quarry dust (QD) were used in this study as raw materials. The chemical compositions of the raw materials used in this work, which were determined using an X-ray fluorescence analyzer (XRF), are presented in Table 1. The particle size distribution was shown in Fig. 1. Calcium oxide (CaO) was used as alkali activator for alkali activated slag. 2.2. Methods 2.2.1. Samples preparation In this study, the water to binder ratio (w/b) was fixed at 0.5 for all mixtures. BFS, CaO and QD were mixed in an agitating pan for 3 min, water was then added to the solid mixture for another 3 min to get homogenous pastes. After that, the pastes were poured into small cylinder molds (50 mm in diameter and

7

BFS QD PC

6 5

Volume / %

2

4 3 2 1 0 1

10

particle size / μm Fig. 1. Particle size distribution of raw materials.

100 mm in height) and vibrated for 2 min to remove air bubbles and then sealed by plastic bags and cured at 20 ± 2 °C and relative humidity (RH) 95% for 24 h before demolding. The demolded specimens were allowed to cure in a moist environment until designated ages. For cement based samples, similar procedure was used expect no CaO was added. The specific mixture proportions were listed in Table 2. 2.2.2. Characterization techniques The compressive strength of the specimens was tested at 1 day, 3 days, 7 days and 28 days according to ASTM D2166/D2166M-16 standard [22]. The average value from three measured specimens were adopted. The flow spread of the fresh slurry was determined by the minislump test following the ASTM C1437-15 [23], using a copper cone with standard dimensions of height of 50 mm and 70 mm top and 100 mm base diameters. The slurry was filled into the cone and then lifted the cone vertically. The diameters of the resulted paste spread were then measured along two perpendicular directions. A ZetaProbe analyzer was used to measure the zeta potential (f, mV) of selected samples. 0.1 g sample and 1L water were used to prepare the suspension. Each zeta potential measurement was performed at least three times to verify the reproducibility of the results. For phase composition, a slice from the hardened sample was cut and impregnated using isopropanol to stop the hydration process and then dried under vacuum at 40 °C. After that, the treated fragments were grounded to fine powder. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) measurements were carried out with a Panalytical X’Pert Pro MPD diffractometer at a scanning rate of 0.1 deg s1 in the 2h range of 5 to 70° using CuKa source. Thermogravimetric (TG) analysis tests were conducted on a NETZSCH STA449 thermogravimetric analyzer. The fine powder

Table 1 Oxide compositions of raw materials.

PC BFS QD a

CaO

Al2O3

SiO2

MgO

FeO

Na2O

K2O

SO3

Basicity indexa

Hydration modulus

72.98 38.66 5.98

2.93 16.60 14.96

21.03 29.92 67.34

1.82 8.88 1.19

0.21 0.40 3.73

0.05 0.37 0.29

0.47 0.42 5.30

0.31 1.51 0.01

0.99

2.07

Basicity index [(CaO + MgO)/(SiO2 + Al2O3)], Hydration modulus [(CaO + MgO + Al2O3)/SiO2].

3

Y. Zhao et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117608 Table 2 Details of mixture proportions (wt. %). NO.

BFS

CaO

QD

NO.

PC

QD

S0 S1 S2 S3 S4

90 80 70 60 50

10 10 10 10 10

0 10 20 30 40

C0 C1 C2 C3 C4

100 90 80 70 60

0 10 20 30 40

samples (pre-treated like the samples for XRD tests) were heated from room temperature to 1000 °C at a heating rate of 15 °C/min in a N2 atmosphere. The chemically bound water (CBW) in hydrated paste was calculated from TG curves using the methods in [24–26] according to Eq. (1), M50 and M550 are the residual mass at 50 °C and 550 °C, respectively.

CBW ¼

M50  M 550  100% M 550

ð1Þ

Scanning electronic microscope (SEM) tests were carried on the small paste samples coated with an Au conductive film after being hydration stopping using isopropanol and dried. The pore size distribution of samples was got from mercury intrusion porosimeter (MIP) tests using an Autopore IV 9500 mercury porosimeter. The pretreatment method of the samples was same as the method for XRD and SEM analysis. 3. Results 3.1. Effect of quarry dust on the flowability The flowability of slurry is reported in Fig. 2(a). It is obvious that the flow spread increased with the increasing of quarry dust content, in both slag and cement based samples. The fresh slurry is heterogeneous, involving complicated interaction force among water, binder particles, and multiple concurrent chemical reactions. According to the DLVO theory for suspensions [27], there are two main forces between particles, i. e. attractive Van der Waals forces and repulsive electrostatic forces due to the formation of a double layer of counter-ions [28]. Double layer forces between particles have a direct influence on the zeta potential, and therefore zeta potential has been used to measure the effective electric charge, which determining the flocculation or dispersion of the particles in suspension, and hence has a direct relationship to flowability [28]. Increasing the content of quarry dust, for one

3.2. Effect of quarry dust on the compressive strength The compressive strength results achieved at 1 day, 3 days, 7 days and 28 days for slag- and cement-based samples are presented in Fig. 3. Obviously, the cement-based series exhibits higher compressive values than slag-based series at all curing periods. The plain CaO-activated slag samples have about 35% lower compressive strength than cement based samples at 28 days. Relatively low compressive strength is commonly reported in the alkali activated slag using low alkalinity activators, such as CaO (this study), Na2CO3 and Na2SO4. The incorporation of quarry dust at a slag/ cement replacement ratio up to 20% has a little detrimental impact on the compressive strength at 28 days. Instead, the addition of quarry dust seems to increase the compressive strength development rate at early curing ages, which possibly attributes to the filler effect. Quarry dust particles have little reactivity, however, the replacement of slag/cement can provide more space for the hydration products diffusion and development [31]. For slag based series, replacement of slag by quarry dust increases the actual OH content to slag, which can enhance the slag hydration rate. When raw materials contact with alkali solution, Si4+, Al3+, Ca2+ and other

S C

54

-20

51

Zeta potential / mV

Flowspread / mm

thing, can lead to less hydration product generated. Hydration gels, such as C-S-H and ettringite have been reported to be the main reason that caused the reduction of the flowability. For another, as shown in Fig. 2 (b), the quarry dust enjoys more negative zeta potential compared with slag and WPC, incorporation of quarry dust can enhance the repulsive electrostatic forces between particles, and then increase the flow spread. On the other hand, the flowability of slag based series was seemed to be superior to that of cement based samples. It has been reported that one of the critical factors affecting the workability of cementitious slurry is the reaction of the binders, where dissolution of binders particles into solution and formation of reaction products in the binders particles surface and solution [28,29]. This will lead to the changing of the inter-particle force through the formation of new bonds and then influence the flowability. In the present study, cement based samples enjoy higher reaction rate, especially in the early hydration state and then more hydration product will generate, which can lead to the slurry become thickness and reduce the flowability. Besides, from Fig. 2 (b), it is clear that the slag particles has more negative zeta potential, which contributes to a stronger repulsion force between particles and subsequent enhance workability of the slurry [30].

48

-16

-12

45 -8

42 0

10

20

30

40

Slag

WPC

Content of quarry dust / %

(a)

(b) Fig. 2. Flowability of samples (a) and Zeta potential (b).

QD

4

Y. Zhao et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117608

S0 S1 S2 S3 S4

25

C0 C1 C2 C3 C4

40

Compressive strength / Mpa

Compressive strength / Mpa

30

20 15 10 5

32

24

16

8 0 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Curing periods / d

(a)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Curing periods / d

(b)

Fig. 3. Time-dependent compressive strength development of samples. (a-slag based samples, b-cement based samples).

minor ions begin to leach and the leaching speed and amount are dependent on the OH concentration [32]. The surface hydrolysis of the raw material particles is also reported to be sensitive to the alkali solution concentration [33]. The soluble ions of the alkali activated system can influence the degree of the hydration reaction, and then affect the compressive strength of samples [34]. However, excessive alkali can lead to a decrease in the compressive strength results from the high viscosity of alkali activated environment and similar results have been reported [35]. As for the cement based samples, the addition of quarry dust will increase the equivalent water content with respect to cement particle, which has been found to attribute to higher hydration degree of the cement. On the other hand, the fine quarry dust can provide additional nucleation sites for slag/cement hydration. While when the replacement ratio increases to 30%, a decrease of the compressive strength is found.

3.3. Effect of quarry dust on the hydration characteristics Fig. 4 shows the X-ray diffraction pattern and thermogravimetry analysis results for samples after 28 days curing. For cement based samples, the XRD results (Fig. 4 a) indicates that the main phases assemble identified includes portlandite, CS-H, calcite and ettringite in both C0 and C2. While for the slag based series, C-S-H with poorly crystallization degree is observed. Besides, quartz, muscovite, orthoclase, albite and biotite due to the addition of quarry dust are also detected in the 20% replacement samples. It should be noticed that the addition of quarry dust induces no mineralogical changes in the hydration products, both in the slag and cement based samples. The weight losses between 60 and 150 are mainly due to the decompositions of ettringite and C-S-H [36], which are generally major hydration products for in cement or alkali activated materials. The DTG results report that the weight of C-S-H decreased due to the addition of quarry dust. A significant weight loss between 180 and 200 is observed in slag based series (Fig. 4 b), which is attributed to the decomposition of AFm-type phase, mainly for strätlingite with a fixed composition, Ca2Al(AlSi)O2(OH)102.25H2O [37], which was reported to be usually difficult to follow by XRD [38]. Strätlingite has been shown to be stable in high alumina cement systems [39], and commonly generates in the hydration of calcium sulfoaluminate (CSA) cements as well as SCM-blended cement, such as metakaolin-cement, silica fume-cement and fly

ash cement [1,2,40]. Compared with the slag-based series, cement-based samples do not exhibit very noticeable weight loss due to the decomposition of AFm, which may be caused by the relative low content of alumina in cement (Table 1 in Section 2.1). All samples show noticeable weight loss from 400 to 600 °C, which are related to the dehydroxylation of portlandite. The weight loss due to the dehydration of portlandite is more distinct in the cement based samples because portlandite is usually one of the products of cement hydration. While for slag based series, portlandite generates from the reacting between CaO and H2O, acts as the main reactant to activate the slag. Compared with slag based samples, another more noticeable weight loss in the cement based series is the decomposition of calcite from 700 to 800 °C. The CBW content measurement is based on weight loss caused by the decomposition of hydration products when hardened cement or alkali activated materials samples are exposed to high temperatures [41,42]. CBW was also be reported to be used as relative measurement of the hydration degree of Portland cement or SCM (slag or fly ash) based cement [43–45], although data about variations of the CBW at different temperatures was not very common in the literature [46]. Fig. 5 (a) and (b) shows the CBW content calculated according to the Eq. (1) in Section 2.2. Generally, the CBW content increased as the curing periods in both slag and cement based samples, indicating increasing hydration degree [26]. The comparison between the slag and cement based samples shows slightly higher content of CBW in cement based series before 7 days of hydration. This can indicate that cement based series enjoys higher hydration rate/degree in the early curing days. Relatively slow reaction rate is commonly found in the alkali activated materials when using less-basic activators, such as CaO [37,47,48] and Na2CO3 [49]. This can commonly lead to relative lower compressive strength (Fig. 2). While after that, rapid increase of the CBW content is observed in the slag based samples until 7 days, especially the samples with less quarry dust addition. After 28 days curing, small difference of CBW content exists between slag and cement based samples. Fig. 5(c) and (d) show the relationship between CBW and compressive strength. For slag based series, a liner relationship between the compressive strength and CBW can be described as y = 3.53 + 0.52x (R2 = 0.87). While an exponential function (y = 17.91*exp(x/122.23) + 21.51) with a R2 value of 0.69 is received for cement based samples. All these indicate that the increase in the CBW is beneficial for the enhancement of the compressive strength of the samples [25].

5

Y. Zhao et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117608

CH

C3S Q/M E HC M

Q-Quartz M-Muscovite O-Orthoclase A-Albite B-Biotite CC-Calcite E-Ettringite CH-Portlandite

MC CC/CSH/C3S

Q/O

M

E

A/B

S2-28d S0-28d C2-28d C0-28d 10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

2-Theta

(a)

0 S0 S2

AFm 90 -3 85

-4 -5

80 AFt, C-S-H

-6

AFm

Calcite -1.5

90 Portlandite

400

600

800

1000

-2.0

85 -2.5 80

-3.0 AFt, C-S-H -3.5

75

75 200

-0.5 -1.0

Calcite -2

TG / %

C0 C2

95

TG / %

Portlandite

-1

DTG / (%/min)

95

0.0

100

DTG / (%/min)

100

200

Temperature /ºC

400

600

800

-4.0 1000

Temperature /ºC

(b)

(c)

Fig. 4. XRD and thermogravimetry analysis of samples curing for 28d. (a-XRD results; thermogravimetry analysis for b-slag samples and c-cement samples).

3.4. Effect of quarry dust on the microstructure The micrographs of samples tested from SEM are shown in Fig. 6. Compared to slag based samples, cement based series seems have more compact matrix, which may be one of the reasons why cement based samples have higher compressive strength (Fig. 3). From Fig. 6 (a) and (c), it is obvious that in the samples with no quarry added, some large pores are formed and the microstructure is rather loose. Replacement of slag/cement of quarry dust leads to more homogenous matrix, attributing to a little detrimental impact on the compressive strength evolution. This may be caused by the filler effect of finer quarry dust, which acts as nucleation sites and generates some micro hydration products, and then fill the voids in the matrix. Fig. 7 reports the pore size distribution of samples after curing for 28d and the specific porosity and mean pore diameter are shown in Table 3. Generally, the pores in the matrix can be divided into four categories: large capillary pores (>100 nm), middle capillary pores (50–100 nm), mesoporous (4.5–50 nm), and gel pores (<4.5 nm) [50], where the gel pores are relate to the intrinsic porosity of C-S-H gels. Slag based samples seem to have more mesoporous, which may be caused by lower reaction rate, providing more time for hydration gels to fill the large voids. The addition of quarry dust increases the number of mesoporous in both slag and cement based samples due to the filler effect. Table 3 shows that slag based samples have higher porosity while small average pore diameter. As has been discussed in Sec-

tion 3.2, CaO-activated slag exhibits lower reaction rate, leading enough time for the hydration products to diffuse and fill the void. Instead, cement hydration is very quick, a lot of hydration gels generate in the early hydration period. This can thicken the reaction system and hinder the diffusion of the hydration products. Anyway, cement based samples enjoy higher reactivity, reflecting from the higher early compressive strength, more hydration gels can generate, which can result in more homogenous matrix (Fig. 6). Replacement of part of slag/cement (10–20%) by quarry dust attributes to smaller average pore diameter, although the porosity increase.

4. Discussions 4.1. The role of quarry dust Generally, the incorporation of SCMs influences the hydration of cement in two ways. The first one is filler effect caused by the inert fine powders. Secondly by a dissolution-precipitation procedure to form hydration products. From Fig. 4 (a), it is clear that the incorporation of quarry dust does not lead to the change of phase assembles in both slag and cement based samples. So, quarry dust may do not pose chemically effect on the hydration of slag and clinkers but a filler effect. Although quarry dust remains chemically inert, the replacement of slag and clinkers by quarry dust increases the equivalent OH and H2O content with respect to slag

6

Y. Zhao et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117608

20

20

16

CBW / %

CBW / %

16 12

12

8 S0 S1 S2 S3 S4

4

C0 C1 C2 C3 C4

8

0

4 0

5

10

15

20

25

30

0

5

10

15

Curing periods / d

Curing periods / d

(a)

(b)

20

25

30

20 20

16

CBW / %

CBW / %

15

10

12

y=3.53+0.52x R2=0.87 5

y=-17.91*exp(-x/22.23)+21.51 R2=0.69 8

0

4 0

10

20

30

0

10

20

30

40

Compressive strength / Mpa

Compressive strength / Mpa

(c)

(d)

50

60

Fig. 5. CBW content of samples curing for 28d according to thermogravimetry analysis and relationship between CBW and compressive strength. (a, b-CBW content; c, drelationship between CBW and compressive strength).

and clinkers respectively, then raising the reaction extent. Similar filler effect has been reported in previous studies using other SCMs, such as silica fume, dolomite and quartz [31,51–54]. Filler effect should not be confused with the chemically effect, reflecting on the reactivity and highly depending on the alkalinity of the pore solution [55]. This chemically effect often builds up in the early hydration days. Silica fume was reported enhances the mechanical properties at early curing days, although no reaction of silica fume was found to react by 29Si NMR [55]. Quartz was found to be no influence on the slope of the heat evolution curve during the acceleration period tested by the isothermal calorimetry although the acceleration period was extended and the maximum heat evolution occurring later [55]. As these filler particles do not hydrate, higher water/clinker ratio is actually used for the hydration of clinker and extra hydration space is available for the hydration products of clinker. Higher liquid/solid ratio has been found to attribute to higher hydration degree of the cement, and then lead to superior mechanical properties. Besides, it has been reported that the cement hydration is diffusion controlled at early state [56], and more space will enhance the diffusion rate of the hydration products. Another mechanism contributing to the filler effect is the enhanced nucleation [55] and fine particles can provided

extra surface acting as nucleation sites for hydration products. All these factors can explain why samples containing up to 20% quarry dust shows only limited compressive strength reduction and porosity rising. 4.2. Environmental impacts Using quarry dust as SCMs in slag or cement based cementitious materials in the current study can be considered as an efficient way to utilize more byproduct of the industry, especially the slag based series. Both slag and quarry dust are environmentally hazardous byproduct. Incorporating these materials into construction materials can attribute to solve the disposal problems of solid wastes, which is becoming increasingly severe ecological and environmental issues. In the slag based samples, satisfactory strength development evolution was observed, which makes CaO activated slag have a potential to the reduction of using Portland cement. Furthermore, the addition of quarry dust into cement based materials could decrease the production of Portland cement, which is one of the main contributors to the carbon footprint in the world. In the present study, replacement of 20% cement do not lead to great damage to

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Y. Zhao et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117608

Large pores

(a)

(b)

Large pores

(c)

(d)

Fig. 6. SEM results of samples after curing for 28d. (a) S0 (b) S2 (c) C0 (d) C2.

0.8

0.4 S0 S2

Mesoporous 0.6 Middle capillary pores Large capillary pores 0.4

0.2

4.5nm

C0 C2

Gel pores

Log differential intrusion / ml·g-1

Log differential intrusion / ml·g-1

Gel pores

0.3

Middle capillary pores

Mesoporous Large capillary pores

0.2

0.1

50nm

4.5nm

50nm

0.0

0.0 10

100

1000

10000

Pore size diameter / nm

10

100

1000

10000

Pore size diameter / nm

(a)

(b) Fig. 7. Pore size distribution of samples after curing for 28d.

the compressive strength, which shows great potential to be used at some field applications without very demanding compressive strength. Besides, Arribas et al. [57] reported that replacement of 20% of OPC by activated coal mining waste (ACMW) can reduce the CO2 emissions of the product by up to 12%. As a result, using quarry dust as SCMs would be an environmentally friendly approach.

At present, the annual demand of sand and stone aggregate in China exceeds 20 billion tons, however, a lot of areas of sand mining are banned or limit mining due to the environmental concerns, which leads to great threat to the construction industry. As a result, the results in the present study shows potential to use quarry dust as fine aggregates in industry practice, such as cemented paste

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Y. Zhao et al. / Construction and Building Materials 237 (2020) 117608

Table 3 Pore parameters of samples after curing for 28 d. Samples

Total porosity/%

Average pore diameter/nm

S0 S1 S2 S3 S4 C0 C1 C2 C3 C4

35.3 39.1 44.6 45.3 47.0 31.1 33.2 36.9 39.1 41.3

22.4 19.7 22.1 25.9 28.8 32.0 29.4 27.0 29.9 32.9

backfill (CPB) [58–62] and ultra-high strength concrete (UHPC) [63–65]. 5. Conclusions Quarry dust can be used as SCMs in the production of low carbon cement. Although no change was found in the phase assemble due to the addition of quarry dust from XRD and TG tests, the incorporation of quarry dust increased the early compressive strength because of the filler effect. Besides, the 28 days compressive strength shown little influence when incorporation of quarry dust at a slag/cement replacement ratio up to 20%. SEM results indicated that the addition of quarry dust led to a more compact matrix and decreased average pore diameter was also observed from the MIP analysis. Considering the availability of quarry dust worldwide, this study shows that quarry dust could be used to produce low carbon cement and to reduce the environmental impact of cement industry. On the other hand, compared with the cement based samples. CaO-activated slag samples exhibit lower compressive strength, so in the follow-up study, the investigation of the strength enhance strategies and the long term durability should be conducted. 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. Acknowledgement The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from National Science and Technology Planning Project, 2018YFC0604604, National Natural Science Foundation of China, 51774066 and Research and development project, Liaoning, 2019JH2/10300051. Appendix A. Supplementary data Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.117608. References [1] J. Qiu, Y. Zhao, J. Xing, X. Sun, Fly ash/blast furnace slag-based geopolymer as a potential binder for mine backfilling: effect of binder type and activator concentration, Adv. Mater. Sci. Eng. 2019 (3) (2019) 1–12, https://doi.org/ 10.1155/2019/2028109. [2] J. Xing, Y. Zhao, J. Qiu, X. Sun, Microstructural and mechanical properties of alkali activated materials from two types of blast furnace slags, Materials (Basel) 12 (13) (2019), https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12132089. [3] S.-H. Kang, Y.-H. Kwon, S.-G. Hong, S. Chun, J. Moon, Hydrated lime activation on byproducts for eco-friendly production of structural mortars, J. Cleaner Prod. 231 (2019) 1389–1398, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.313.

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