Influence of wood pretreatment, hardwood and softwood extractives on the compressive strength of fly ash-based geopolymer composite

Abstract This paper investigated the specific compressive strength (specific strength) of fly ash-based geopolymer composites with four hardwood extractives and two softwood extractives, as well as specific wood extractives. Additionally, the effect of the portion of pine wood (i.e., sapwood and heartwood) and wood pretreatment with NaOH were considered. Geopolymer paste (with extractives) and geopolymer wood composites (GWCs) were cured at 60 °C for 24 h. The samples were stored in a climate chamber (20 °C, 65% RH) for 7 days before finally testing under compression. From the results, the specific strengths of geopolymers with hardwood extractives were not significantly affected. However, geopolymers containing pine extractives showed the most significant reduction in specific strength. There were no significant differences in the specific strengths of geopolymers containing polyphenols and resin acid. Generally, geopolymers containing fatty acids recorded the lowest specific strengths. There was no difference between the GWCs with untreated sapwood and heartwood. However, the wood pretreatment led to a 21% and 10% increase in the specific strengths of GWCs with sapwood and heartwood, respectively. The findings of this study form the basis for improved GWCs production and a wide range of applications for green composite materials.