Recycling of environmental harmful industrial wastes in eco-friendly building materials production suitable for specific applications

Sustainable building materials are one of the main principles to achieve sustainable construction. It refers to the potential of utilizing environmentally harmful industrial wastes to reduce the consumption of raw materials/energy used in producing ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Ground-granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS), lead-bearing sludge (LBS), metakaolin (MK) and fly ash (FA) were used in this work to develop eco-green binding materials with several advanced applications. Five specimens were prepared, including a control specimen (100 % GGBFS, S0) and four ternary-blended geopolymers (TBGs; GGBFS/LBS/FA and GGBFS/LBS/MK) with different proportions. The experimental work examined the mix-design's influence of the TBGs on the fresh/hardened characteristics and resistance against elevated-temperature (200-900 degrees C), highdose gamma-radiation (1000-3000 kG y) and mico-organisms (Salmonella-typhi, BacillusCereus, Aspergillus-oryzae and Aspergillus-fumigatus). Also, the XRD, TGA/DTG (phase composition analysis) and SEM/EDX (microstructure analysis) were studied. The findings revealed that LBS significantly reduces workability compared to MK and FA. Although the LBS, MK, and FA mixture elongated the setting time, its values are still within acceptable limits. The strength values obtained by TBGs after 28 days ranged from 51.0 to 66.7 MPa, revealing that these wastes are good alternatives to OPC. TBGs proved effective in resisting elevated-temperatures and highdose gamma-radiation compared to S0 by forming highly-stable zeolitic compounds. The S0 specimen cannot hinder Salmonella typhi's growth; unlike TBGs, the existence of PbO2, Fe2O3, and TiO2 in the matrix inhibits all microorganisms' growth.