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Title: Physicochemical characterizations of nano-palm oil fuel ash

Journal Article · · AIP Conference Proceedings
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4919156· OSTI ID:22488606
 [1]
  1. Department of Structure and Material, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru (Malaysia)

Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) is known as a good supplementary cementing material due to its siliceous-rich content. The application of nanotechnology in the pozzolanic materials could invent new functions in the efficiency of physical and chemical properties of materials. Thus, the present study aims to generate nano-sized POFA and characterize the physicochemical properties of nano-palm oil fuel ash (nPOFA). The nPOFA was prepared by mechanically grinding micro POFA using a high intensity ball milling for 6 hours. The physicochemical properties of nPOFA were characterized via X-Ray Fluoresence (XRF), Scanning Emission microscopy- Energy Dispersive X-Ray (SEM-EDX), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). The particle size of nPOFA acquired from TEM analysis was in the range of 20 nm to 90 nm, while the average crystallite size calculated from XRD diffractogram was 61.5 nm. The resulting nPOFA has a BET surface area of 145.35 m{sup 2}/g, which is more than 85% increment in surface area compared to micro-sized POFA. The morphology and elemental studies showed the presence of spherical as well as irregularly shaped and fine nPOFA particles contains with high silicon content. The presence of α-quartz as the major phase of the nPOFA was identified through XRD analysis. The study concludes that nPOFA has the potential as a supplementary cementing material due to the high silica content, high surface area and the unique behaviors of nano-structured particles.

OSTI ID:
22488606
Journal Information:
AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1669, Issue 1; Conference: SCMSM 2014: 23. scientific conference of Microscopy Society Malaysia, Tronoh (Malaysia), 10-12 Dec 2014; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English