Evaluation of effect of red mud and fly ash as filler on the properties of modified PET resin polymer mortar composite

Toxic plastic waste like polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and industrial waste red mud (RM) and fly ash (FA) are disposed into open landfills and cause severe environmental threats by contaminating soil, water, and air. In this study, the beneficial utilization of RM or FA as supplementary cementitious material (SCM) in the PET waste (r-UP resin) prepared polymer mortar (r-UP PM) composite was investigated. The r-UP PM composite was prepared by fully replacing cement with PET binder (r-UP resin) and FA or RM filler. The compressive, tensile, flexure, bond strength, and acid resistance test for r-UP PM were carried out. Optimized r-UP PM specimen were further analysed for thermogravimetric and microstructure (SEM) analysis. The FA PM (polymer mortar incorporated with fly ash filler) shows an increase in compressive, tensile, flexure, and bond strength by 4.05%, 7.69%, 21.52%, and 16.67% compared to RM PM (polymer mortar incorporated with red mud filler). While RM PM shows a decrease of 5.23% weight in TGA analysis compared to FA PM. This study indicates that FA can be used as SCM in the r-UP PM composite to achieve good strength and durability.