Properties of Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) Geopolymer Mortar Cured at Ambient Temperature

Geopolymer material needs high temperature curing to produce good microstructure, high strength, and durable product. However, curing at ambient temperature is more preferable and practical in application for cast in situ geopolymer. In order to allow curing at ambient temperature, the geopolymer is mixed with mineral additives that has high calcium content such as slag, Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and high calcium fly ash. In this study, the Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) was added in the Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) geopolymer mortar to induce setting and hardening at ambient temperature. Setting time, compressive strength and porosity of the POFA geopolymer mortar were measured. The OPC was added into the geopolymer at dosages of 0%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, and 40%. The alkaline activator used was a combination of NaOH (16M) and sodium silicate with a ratio of 2.5 by mass. The POFA geopolymer mortar were cast and cured at ambient temperature. Results show that addition of 35% OPC increased the setting time by 99.44%, increased the compressive strength of mortar by 95.46% and decreased the porosity by 5.27% at 28 days. It can be concluded that inclusion of the OPC could improve the setting and final strength of the geopolymer material.