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Construction and Building Materials, Volume 30, May 2012, Pages 243-251
Tzen-Chin Lee, Kae-Long Lin, Xun-Wei Su, Kuo-Kang Lin
Department of Civil and Disaster Prevention Engineering, National United University, Miao-Li 360-03, Taiwan, ROC
Department of Environmental Engineering, National Ilan University, I-Lan 260-41, Taiwan, ROC
Abstract
Sludge, a byproduct of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) used in integrated-circuit (IC) industries, is composed of hazardous materials such as nano-particles of SiO2, Al2O3, CaF2, and unknown organics. These nano-particles are potentially dangerous if released into the environment. Preliminary studies are carried out on sludge-blended cement concrete (SBCC) formed into specimens of cylindrical concrete with 10 cm diameter and 20 cm height. They are with 10 wt.% cement replaced by CMPsludge powder. Three water/cementitious (W/C) ratios were selected to mold the specimens for setting time, XRD analysis, TCLP analysis and compressive strength and stress–strain tests, respectively. TCLP test results revealed that the concentrations of leached heavy metals were substantially below the regulatory thresholds. The strengths of the SBCC specimens were comparable to those of the ordinary Portland cement concrete (OPCC) specimens with 3-day curing and about 22–38% much higher than those of OPCC cylindrical concrete specimens at 7–91 days of age. These results demonstrate the feasibility of recyclingCMPsludge into construction materials, a positive step for sustainable development.