Novel geopolymers incorporating red mud and waste glass cullet

Red mud presents significant environmental problems, so that its incorporation in geopolymers could represent an alternative solution to produce valuable products from this residue. Novel geopolymers using red mud as source of alumina and waste glass as silica supplier were developed, using sodium hydroxide as the only ‘non-waste’ material. The formation of a homogeneous polymeric gel, confirmed by solid-state NMR and EDX analysis, promoted the stabilization of possible pollutants. Moreover, the materials exhibit a remarkable compressive strength (up to 45 MPa, for 60 wt% red mud).