Durability of concrete with alkali-activated materials: a short literature review

Abstract

The alkali-activated materials are being understood as the best chance to replace the Portland cement to become the concrete industry greener in terms of CO2 emissions. However, these alternatives binders face challenges, among others related to durability. The present work regards to a short literature review about the durability in concrete produced with binders that are alkali-activated materials. The mechanisms of degradation are discussed, namely due to acid attack, capillarity, carbonation, permeability , porosity and steel corrosion. Comparison to the  concrete that used Portland cement as binder is frequently used.