High performance cementing materials from industrial slags - a review

At the present, most industrial slags are being used without taking full advantage of their properties or disposed rather than used. The industrial slags, which have cementitious or pozzolanic properties, should be used as partial or full replacement for Portland cement rather than as bulk aggregates or ballasts because of the high cost of Portland cement, which is attributable to the high energy consumption for the production of Portland cement. The traditional way to utilize metallurgical slags in cementing materials is to partially replace Portland cement, which usually results in a lower early strength and longer setting times. Presence of activator(s) can accelerate the break-up of structure and hydration of slags. Many research results have indicated that clinkerless alkali-activated slags even exhibit higher strengths, denser structure and better durability compared with Portland cement. In this paper, the recent achievements in the development of high performance cementing materials based on activated slags such as blast furnace slag, steel slag, copper slag and phosphorus slag are reviewed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.