Upcycling marble waste into construction materials and heavy metal adsorbents via hot-pressed geopolymerization technique

This study presents a sustainable approach to utilizing marble dust waste by producing bifunctional metakaolin-based geopolymers via a synchronized hot-pressing technique. In this study, the environmental footprint was minimized by designing mixtures in which marble waste constituted 50% of the total volume. Three stoichiometric series were investigated by varying the activator modulus (SiO2/Na2O = 3 and 4) and the Si/Al ratio (2 and 3) under two curing temperatures (150 and 300 °C) and three compaction stresses (5, 25, and 50 MPa). Thus, a high-volume industrial byproduct was transformed into a functional component. In this context, it investigated the transformation of industrial products into next-generation materials by using them to produce cementless composite geopolymers for civil engineering and to adsorb heavy metal (Cu2+). As a result of the research, an early compressive strength of 58 MPa was obtained through heat treatment and pressing applied at 300 °C and 50 MPa. This optimum strength was achieved in the SiO2/Na2O = 3, Si/Al = 3 series, whereas excess silica (SiO2/Na2O = 4) and excess aluminum (Si/Al = 2) limited the strength to 16.8 and 35.2 MPa, respectively. Microstructural analyses (SEM/EDS and FT-IR) revealed that marble dust was used as a filler material in the microstructure to produce an N-A-S-H-containing matrix. The produced materials were then ground after their service life and used to purify water containing heavy metals. More than 99.75% of Cu2+ was removed through ion exchange between copper ions used as heavy metals. The residual Cu2+ concentration fell below 0.25 mg/L from an initial concentration of 100 mg/L, and the released Na+-to-adsorbed Cu2+ molar ratio of approximately 1.8–2.3 confirmed an ion-exchange-dominated uptake mechanism. This structural and environmental impact demonstrates that marble waste, which is otherwise discarded as waste, is considered inert, offering an alternative model for the circular economy and environmental applications.