Conventional Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) concrete is associated with significant environmental impacts and durability limitations under aggressive exposure conditions. In this study, alkali-activated nano concrete (AANC) incorporating industrial waste-based nanomaterials (NMs) was developed to enhance interfacial and structural performance while improving sustainability. The influence of nano fly ash (nFA), nano Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (nGS), and nano bentonite (nBT) on the compressive strength, bond strength, and interfacial shear strength behaviour of AANC was experimentally investigated. The concrete mixtures were prepared using fly ash (FA), Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBFS), M-sand, coarse aggregates, and alkaline activators with varying NM dosages. The results demonstrated substantial improvement in mechanical and interfacial properties with the incorporation of NMs. The optimum mixtures containing 9% nFA, 12% nGS, and 6% nBT increased the compressive strength (CS) from 37.25 MPa to 60.37 MPa. Among all mixtures, nGS12 exhibited the highest overall performance, achieving bond strength (BS) exceeding 8 MPa and interfacial shear strength (ISS) of 6.1 MPa, followed by nFA9 with superior interfacial enhancement. SEM analysis revealed a denser microstructure and improved interfacial transition zone (ITZ) due to nano-scale pore refinement and enhanced geopolymeric gel formation. Strong exponential correlations were observed between compressive strength and interfacial properties (R 2 ≈ 0.94–0.95), confirming the reliability of the developed nano-engineered systems. The findings demonstrate that nano-engineered industrial waste materials can significantly enhance the structural applicability, load transfer capacity, and durability potential of AANC, making it a promising sustainable alternative for high-performance concrete applications in aggressive service environments.
R et al. (Mon,) studied this question.