Properties and Environmental Impact of Cement Mortar Using Spodumene Mining Residue as Mineral Admixture

The rapid development of the lithium battery industry resulted in a large accumulation of spodumene mining residue (SMR). This paper explored the feasibility of using SMR as mineral admixtures in cement mortar. The properties of cement mortar, including flexural strength, compressive strength, fluidity, hydration characteristics, and durability, were studied. The interaction mechanism between SMR and cement mortar had been explored using the Dinger-Funk model, isothermal calorimetry, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and thermogravimetry (TG) methods. Additionally, the environmental impact of cement mortar was quantitatively evaluated by the life cycle assessment method. The results showed that, while the dosage of SMR was no more than 20 wt.% replaced cement, the flexural strength, compressive strength, and anti-carbonation and sulfate corrosion resistance properties of S2 and S3 cement mortar were similar to that of the blank group. After curing for 28 d, the compressive strength of S1, S2, and S3 were 44.2 MPa, 43.15 MPa, and 40.32 MPa, respectively. SMR powder could improve the workability and reduce the cumulative hydration heat of cement mortar, which confirmed its application potential in large-volume concrete projects. The appropriate content of SMR incorporation into cement mortar could improve the structure and properties of cement-based materials through particle filling, the induced nucleation effect, and the pozzolanic effect. In addition, the utilization of SMR reduced the environmental emissions and resource consumption of cement-based materials. Using 1 m³ cement mortar as an example, for every 10 wt.% increase in SMR powder replacing cement, the energy consumption, the emissions of CO₂, CO, C_xH_y, NO_x, SO₂, dust, and resource consumption of cement mortar were decreased by approximately 342 MJ, 40 kg, 8.1 g, 5.55 g, 88.3 g, 5.24 g, 1.80 kg, and 74.3 kg, respectively. The research findings of this paper are expected to promote the resource utilization of SMR and reduce the carbon emissions of the building materials industry.