Synthesis and Characterization of Fly Ash Geopolymer for Water Absorbent Material

Abstract

Geopolymer as a water absorbent material has been synthesized from fly ash. This research aims to determine the ability of geopolymer to save water content with variations of NaOH molar ratio. In this research, the synthesis of geopolymer was conducted by setting NaOH molar ratio at 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 M. The resulting material characterization was done by using XRD, FTIR and SEM in order to characterize the geopolymer structures. Water absorption capacity was measured by immersing the geopolymer specimens in water for 24 hours. The results show that the optimum molar ratio of NaOH was 3 M, which water absorption capacity was 11.10%wt.