Delithiated β−spodumene as a geopolymer precursor

There is an increasing demand for lithium, which is perceived as the key element of the green revolution. This green image remains incomplete without the circular economic uptake of delithiated β−spodumene (DβS). In a recent contribution, the authors proved that DβS has remarkable pozzolanic properties (Karrech et al., 2019). This paper sheds more light on the early-age and long-term behaviour of DβS derived geopolymer by using advanced characterisation tools based on microscopy and spectroscopy along with standard material testing. Important new results have been obtained using this campaign; while DβS proved to be an acceptable geopolymer precursor, flowability and penetration resistance tests proved that it improves workability and increases initial setting times. The long-term testing proved that embedding DβS produces lower shrinkage, which indicative of good durability.