Characterisation and activation of graphite mine tailings for use in cementitious binders

IF 7.4 1区工程技术 Q1 CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

Construction and Building Materials Pub Date : 2025-03-28 DOI:10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2025.140923

Surya Maruthupandian, Napoleana Anna Chaliasou, Sufyan Akram, Andreas Chrysanthou, Antonios Kanellopoulos

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The widespread use and production of Portland cement, amounting to 4.10 billion tonnes annually, poses challenges in acquiring quality raw materials. Also, the demands associated with the global development had led to intensified mining and production of significant quantity of mineral wastes including mine tailing. The quantity of disposed mine tailing is about 217 km³ at present with a predicted annual addition of 12.30 km³ to this volume. This poses major environmental, economic, social, and legal concerns. The Construction and Building materials research under Horizon 2020 program of Europe 2020 strategy promotes the materials for energy efficiency including materials with low embodied energy and materials capable of reusing a high waste content. Use of mine tailings, with a chemical and oxide composition similar to supplementary cementitious materials, in cementitious binders emerges as a potential solution to the above-mentioned problems. However, documented challenges, such as crystallinity, variations physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics, acid mine drainage, and heavy metal leaching, hinder its immediate use as a cement precursor. This study focuses on developing a suitable treatment for a siliceous mine tailing from graphite mining for its use as a binder precursor. In this study, mineralogical and activation data are presented with respect to graphite tailings. Mechanical and thermal activation protocols were developed, and the processed tailings were assessed in terms of their physico-chemical properties. The mine tailing exhibited high SiO₂ composition 58.5 % and was predominantly crystalline. The XRD analysis indicated the possibility of activation by milling and calcination. The characteristics and reactivity of activated samples indicated that the samples calcined at 850 °C exhibited higher heat of hydration in R3 tests and samples milled for 90 min exhibited higher solubility in alkaline environment.

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来源期刊

Construction and Building Materials 工程技术-材料科学：综合

CiteScore

13.80

自引率

21.60%

发文量

3632

审稿时长

82 days

期刊介绍： Construction and Building Materials offers an international platform for sharing innovative and original research and development in the realm of construction and building materials, along with their practical applications in new projects and repair practices. The journal publishes a diverse array of pioneering research and application papers, detailing laboratory investigations and, to a limited extent, numerical analyses or reports on full-scale projects. Multi-part papers are discouraged. Additionally, Construction and Building Materials features comprehensive case studies and insightful review articles that contribute to new insights in the field. Our focus is on papers related to construction materials, excluding those on structural engineering, geotechnics, and unbound highway layers. Covered materials and technologies encompass cement, concrete reinforcement, bricks and mortars, additives, corrosion technology, ceramics, timber, steel, polymers, glass fibers, recycled materials, bamboo, rammed earth, non-conventional building materials, bituminous materials, and applications in railway materials.