A study on the compressive strength and microstructure characteristic of alkali-activated metakaolin cement

ABSTRACT The main purpose of this study was to investigate the compressive strength and microstructure characteristic of alkali-activated metakaolin cement (AAMC). In accordance with this purpose, besides the pure metakaolin activation five other mixtures were designed by substitution of different OPC ratios instead of metakaolin (MK) from 0 to 25 (5, 10, 15, 20, 25% OPC). AAMC was activated with sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) of modulus Ms = SiO2/Na2O = 3.1 and NaOH solutions (32% of NaOH, 68% of water by mass). The ratio of liquid/solid (L/S) was kept constant at 0.65. All specimens were cured at...