What Is A Geopolymer?

Dating back to the earliest historical uses of cementitious formulations as building materials, society has looked for ways to use the wide variety of available raw materials to improve the physical properties of the final products. Evidence of the inclusion of volcanic materials such as volcanic ashes by the ancient Greeks dates back to at least 500–400 BC. As early as the 1920s, cement formulators have employed refined industrial byproducts such as fly ash, metal slag and processed silicas, collectively referred to as pozzolans, as fillers and aggregates in standard cements. Today, almost all cement formulations contain some percentage of these natural or manmade by-products.