Characteristics of metallurgical slag as a possible additive in alite cements

Reducing the costs of disposing of waste products from industrial processes through their reuse is the subject of much research. This approach is very important because the disposal of waste products has a negative impact on the environment, even if it is non-hazardous waste. The basic idea of this research was to prepare a new type of mortar with the addition of copper slag, which was obtained as a by-product of the Copper Smelter in Bor. A detailed characterization of the copper slag sample was performed, which included determining the moisture content and density of the sample, the granulometric composition of the starting sample, grindability, the granulometric composition of the micronized sample, and the mineralogical composition of the micronized sample. After micronization of the copper slag sample, new types of mortar were prepared with replacement mass fractions of 10%, 20%, 36% and 55% in alite cements. The results of geomechanical tests showed that the system with a mass fraction of copper slag of 10 wt% achieves a compressive strength of 39.2 MPa after 7 days of hydration, while pure alite cement in the same hydration period has a compressive strength of 38.6 MPa. The presence of the mineral ettringite confirmed that a stable structure was formed during the hydration process due to the gradual hardening of the cement paste.