Synergistic effect of surfactants in porous geopolymer: Tailoring pore size and pore connectivity

With the growing interest in foamed geopolymer manufacture, there is an increasing demand for tailoring these composites’ pore structure. The binary system of two surfactants offers a possibility enhancing foam formation efficiency and stability paste, however, their effects are not well understood. influence blends on formation, size, distribution fly ash-based matrix investigated synergistic evaluated. results show that combining nonionic surfactant with anionic Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS) increases open porosity, whereas cationic Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide (CTAB) promotes development closed pores, improving thermal insulating, hygrothermal mechanical performance. Moreover, this paper proposes mechanism to describe creation pores presence mixed micelles, as benefit employing systems customizing porous composites.