Interfacial transition zone between aggregate and alkali-activated blast furnace slag – a scanning electron microscopy

Abstract

Alkali-activated binders are currently a widely-researched material. Thanks to the use of secondary raw materials such as slag from metallurgical production and ash from combustion, it appears to be a more promising and more environmentally friendly material than conventional cement concrete. Considerable attention is paid to the bonding phase itself, but only a few works deal with the binder-aggregate interaction. With cement concrete, much more attention is paid to this issue. This paper deals with the possibility of observation using electron microscopy and the information that can be obtained by this method. The problems of sample preparation and difficulties in the course of our own observation are monitored.