Study on hydration mechanism and environmental safety of thermal activated red mud-based cementitious materials

Red mud (RM) cementitious materials were prepared with the thermally, thermoalkali- or thermocalcium-activated RM, steel slag (SS), and other additives. The effects of different thermal RM activation methods on the cementitious material hydration mechanisms, mechanical properties, and environmental risks were discussed and analyzed. The results showed that the hydration products of different thermally activated RM samples were similar with the main products being C-S–H, tobermorite, and Ca(OH)2. Ca(OH)2 was mainly present in thermally activated RM samples, and the tobermorite was mainly produced by samples prepared with thermoalkali- and the thermocalcium-activated RM. The mechanical properties of the samples prepared by thermally and thermocalcium-activated RM had early-strength properties, while the thermoalkali-activated RM samples were similar to the late-strength type of cement properties. The average flexural strength of thermally and the thermocalcium-activated RM samples at 14 days were 3.75 MPa and 3.87 MPa respectively, whereas, the 1000 °C thermoalkali-activated RM samples only at 28 days was 3.26 MPa; the above data could reach the single flexural strength (3.0 MPa) of the first-grade pavement blocks of the building materials industry standard of the People’s Republic of China-concrete pavement blocks (JC/T446-2000). The optimal preactivated temperature for different thermally activated RM was different; the optimal preactivated temperature for both thermally and thermocalcium-activated RM was 900 °C, and the flexural strength was 4.46 MPa and 4.35 MPa, respectively. However, the optimal preactivated temperature of thermoalkali activated RM at 1000 °C. The 900 °C thermally activated RM samples had better solidified effects for heavy metal elements and alkali substances. 600~800℃ thermoalkali activated RM samples had better solidified effects for heavy metal elements. Different temperatures of thermocalcium-activated RM samples showed different solidified effects on different heavy metal elements, which may be due to the influence of thermocalcium activation temperature on the structural changes of the hydration products of the cementitious samples. In this study, three thermal RM activation methods were proposed, and the co-hydration mechanism and environmental risk study of different thermally activated RM and SS were further elucidated. This not only provides an effective method for the pretreatment and safe utilization of RM, but also facilitates the synergistic resource treatment of solid waste and further promotes the research process of replacing part of traditional cement with solid waste.