Morphology of lightweight metakaolin-based geopolymer polystyrene composite paste at early ages

The integration of polystyrene foams as the lightweight agent in geopolymer is an alternative to produce a lightweight metakaolin-based geopolymer. Meanwhile, the microstructure studies assist to provide better understanding towards the formation of lightweight geopolymer. Hence, the present study examined the morphological characteristics of lightweight metakaolin-based geopolymer polystyrene composite at an early age. The lightweight metakaolin-based geopolymer paste is prepared at ratio 0.7 by using sodium hydroxide as an alkaline activator and the addition of polystyrene foams at ratio of 0.3. The morphology of the lightweight metakaolin-based geopolymer polystyrene paste was analyzed through SEM analysis at 14 days curing ages. The lightweight geopolymer at early ages consisted of the unresponsive metakaolin and porous gel as it gave less dense and compact microstructure. Meanwhile, the analysis showed that the polystyrene foams blended-well in the geopolymer matrix. However, the high temperature during the curing process damages the texture of some of the polystyrene foams. Yet, the utilization of the polystyrene foams as lightweight agents is believed to produce a lightweight metakaolin-based geopolymer

A Preliminary Study on STEM Encouragement in Chemistry Subject: The Learning Experience of SMK Usukan Students in STEM AUMS Warrior Program

Currently, due to the lack of awareness in STEM education, the number of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students in Sabah has been continuously decreasing. It is crucial to engage school in rural area of Sabah with STEM activities to boost their interest towards STEM education. The primary goal of this study is to establish effective Chemistry-STEM module, analyzing the preliminary effects of the integration on the interest of students, and encouraging STEM education to rural students through chemistry subject. Present study is the preliminary investigation on the learning experience of students in STEM through the Chemistry module. For the purpose of this study, a sample of 74 students from the lower secondary school of SMK Usukan, Kota Belud, Sabah participated in The Power of Atom Module developed by Preparatory Centre for Science & Technology (PPST), Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS). Student’s learning experience data was gathered through a questionnaire that results in statistically significant improvement in STEM learning and communication skills. The findings suggested that the Chemistry-STEM module developed by Chemistry lectures encourage and enhance self-learning, interest in learning Science (i.e. Chemistry), teamwork skills and communications skills of the students. It shows that this module is approachable to rural schools in learning STEM education

Experimental analysis of titanium dioxide synthesis from synthetic rutile waste using a moderate acid concentration and temperature

The present study is to clarify the present influences of acid concentration and temperature of caustic hydrothermal method on extracting the titanium dioxide (TiO2) from synthetic rutile waste. In this experimental work, the caustic hydrothermal method comprises two processes: a decomposition and the sulphate process. The extracted titanium is characterized by using a electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to specify its chemical composition, field emission scanning electron microscope to determine the morphology and particle size, and lastly it is the X-ray diffraction to analyse the crystallinity of extracted titanium. In this study, we found that both acid concentration and temperature affected the TiO2 growth while the calcination process could improve the crystallinity of extracted titanium

Effect of acid concentration and time on synthesizing the titanium dioxide from synthetic rutile waste

A fast and easy method for preparing the titanium dioxide (TiO2), using a caustic hydrothermal decomposition conditions followed with sulphate process using sulfuric acid (H2SO4) are presented. The effects of acid concentration and treatment time of sulphate process to the TiO2 growth were focused in this research. The chemical composition of the product will be characterized using Electron Dispersive (EDX), the morphology and growth of titanium were analysed using a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and the crystallinity of sample were analysed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). From this research work, we found that the caustic hydrothermal decomposition method followed with sulphate process has been proven to extract a titanium nanocrystals with the average mean size < 100nm after treated with medium acid concentration and short treatment time