Workability, compressive strength, and efflorescence characteristics of one-part mix alkali-activated circulating fluidised bed combustion fly ash-based mortars

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• Sustainable fly ash-based AAMs mortars were investigated. • Solid activator-to-precursor influences strength development of AAMs. • Na 2 SiO 3 -to-NaOH less influential on strength development of AAMs. • Mechanism governing strength development of AAMs is elucidated. In this study, one-part alkali-activated mortars are formulated using circulating fluidised bed combustion (CFBC) fly ash, derived from lignite (brown coal) combustion, as the precursor, and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium metasilicate (Na 2 SiO 3 ) as the solid activators. Experimental findings indicate that an increase in solid activator-to-precursor ratio correlates with improved workability and compressive strength of the mortars. The influence of Na 2 SiO 3 -to-NaOH ratio on the compressive strength of the mortars is apparent only in mixes with a high solid activator-to-precursor ratio of 0.4 and 0.5, indicating its relatively lesser significance compared to the solid activator-to-precursor ratio. The mechanism through which an increase in the solid activator-to-precursor ratio improves the compressive strength of the mortars is elucidated using attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. The results indicate that increasing the solid activator-to-precursor ratio enhances the degree of alkali-activation for fly ash, thereby improving the compressive strength with increasing solid activator-to-precursor ratio.