Waste materials from the automotive industries were re-used as aggregates into metakaolin-based geopolymer (GP), geopolymer mortar (GM), and Bauhaus B20-based concrete composite (C). Specifically, the study evaluates the ability of windshield silica glass (W), PVB-Foils (P), and rubber granulates (G) to impact the mechanical and thermal properties. The addition of the recovered materials into the experimental geopolymers outperformed the commercially available B20. The flexural strength reached values of 7.37 ± 0.51 MPa in concrete with silica glass, 4.06 ± 0.32 in geopolymer malt with PVB-Foils, and 6.99 ± 0.82 MPa in pure geopolymer with rubber granulates; whereas the highest compressive strengths (бc) were obtained by the addition of PVB-Foils in pure geopolymer, geopolymer malt, and concrete (43.16 ± 0.31 MPa, 46.22 ± 2.06 MPa, and 27.24 ± 1.28 MPa, respectively). As well PVB-Foils were able to increase the impact strength (бi) at 5.15 ± 0.28 J/cm2 in pure geopolymer, 5.48 ± 0.41 J/cm2 in geopolymer malt, and 3.19 ± 0.14 J/cm2 in concrete, furnishing a significant improvement over the reference materials. Moreover, a correlation between density and thermal conductivity (λ) was also obtained to provide the suitability of these materials in applications such as insulation or energy storage. These findings serve as a basis for further research on the use of waste materials in the creation of new, environmentally friendly composites.

Department of Chemistry University of Pavia 27100 Pavia Italy

Department of Materials Technology and Production Systems Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Lodz University of Technology 90 001 Lodz Poland

Department of Pure and Applied Science University of Urbino 61029 Urbino Italy

Faculty of Material Engineering and Physics Cracow University of Technology 31 864 Cracow Poland

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Technical University of Liberec 461 17 Liberec Czech Republic

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