Estudo do acetato de celulose incorporado em matriz geopolimérica à base de metacaulim

Abstract

Several articles and works have been published on the large amount of waste produced by the cigarette industry, with most of this problem due to cellulose acetate fiber. This fiber, used to manufacture the cigarette filter, is a material of large volume and difficult to decompose in the environment. The fiber is discarded after the use of cigarettes and also during its manufacture, due to manufacturing errors that make it unsuitable for use. In the present work, it was proposed the use of this fiber, discarded during manufacturing, so that it does not become a pollutant, as the fiber takes a long time to decompose in the environment. The addition of this fiber to a geopolymer matrix was studied. Geopolymers have been used to replace Portland cement because they are more sustainable, since the production of the cement matrix generates pollution. For this, a geopolymer matrix based on metakaolin activated with a solution of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate was used. The independent variables studied were the different cellulose acetate fiber contents and the test age, to evaluate the influence of these two variables on the analyzed properties of the material, in addition to determining the best fiber content. The results obtained through the trials were promising. The fiber was shown to be suitable for matrix reinforcement, since all properties analyzed were positively influenced by the addition of fiber, highlighting tenacity among them, whose highest value of 48.63 J/m², obtained for the highest fiber content (3%), represented an increase of approximately 796% in relation to the matrix.