## 1 Introduction
A highly alkaline medium, like in the case of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicates, does not change the structure of the admixture, such as polypropylene glycol (HO-[CH\({}_{2}\)-CH\({}_{3}\)-O]\({}_{\rm{n}}\)-H) [46; 57]. The results of infrared spectroscopy confirmed the high effectiveness of the plasticizers without ester bonds, represented by NaLST, polyethers, ethoxylated fatty alcohol, the salt of carboxylic acid, carboxylic acids, and acyclic polyamine [58]. The silicate component (sodium metasilicate) caused a higher degradation of polycarbonate esters than sodium carbonate (soda-ash) due to the higher pH value, i.e., 12.6 and 11.3, respectively. These results concerning the stability of plasticizing admixtures with various molecular structures in the AAC hydration medium correlate well with the influence on the AAC structure formation observed by changes in rheological properties of the AAC pastes [36], as well as in the heat evolution using thermo-kinetic criteria [59; 60]. The use of PCEs in AAC. Conventional methacrylate _ester-based_ (MPEG) PCEs are the most effective plasticizing admixtures for Portland cement-based materials due to the steric mechanism of plasticization [61; 62; 63; 64]. However, they are ineffective in alkali-activated cement materials. As shown above, this phenomenon is primarily caused by the instability of the molecular structure in the hydration environment of AAC and by the low adsorption of PCEs on the surface of AAC particles due to competitive adsorption between PCEs and the other anions present in the cement pore solution, e.g., anion (SiO\({}_{3}\)\({}^{2-}\)) in the case of silicate-based activators [36]. The inefficiency of conventional PCEs is also due to their lack of solubility in alkaline salt solutions [65; 66], as well as the conformational compression of PCE molecules, which reduces their steric repulsion [67]. High ionic force in pore solution of AAC, activated by 0.25-0.5 M Na\({}_{2}\)SiO\({}_{3}\), resulted in coiling of the PCE molecules, hampering their steric hinderance [68]. At very high ionic strengths (e.g., 3 M NaOH or 1 M Na\({}_{2}\)SiO\({}_{3}\)), PCE molecules self-assemble into large aggregates (>1 \(\upmu\)m), which ultimately leads to flocculation and insolubility. It was demonstrated that MPEG-based PCE with the co-monomer acrylic acid was more effective than methacrylic acid [69]. This difference was attributed to the acrylic acid-based MPEG PCE having a higher hydrophilic-lipophilic balance value, resulting in higher adsorption and solubility in the highly alkaline medium of AAC. The compositions of _ether-based PCE_ were synthesized to be effective in AAC [40]. Thus, ether-based polymers with a cationic charge possessing a side chain of 43 ethylene oxide units and a quaternary ammonium to side chain ratio of 5:1 were synthesized as effective superplasticizers for a sodium silicate-activated ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GBFS) system. Furthermore, \(\alpha\)-allyl-\(\upomega\)-hydroxy poly (ethylene glycol)-based PCE (APEG), suitable for the NaOH-activated AAC, was synthesized from allyl ether macromonomer and maleic anhydride. The proposed polymer exhibited a short side chain made of seven ethylene oxide units and a higher _molecular weight_ (M\({}_{\text{w}}\) > 30,000 Da) [65]. The superior dispersing effect of the polymer was attributed to its good solubility in NaOH solution and the enhanced chelating ability of maleic anhydride for Ca\({}^{2+}\) cations, promoting the adsorption of these PCE molecules on ground granulated blast-furnace slag. PCE, synthesized via free-radical copolymerization from acrylic acid as backbone monomer and \(\alpha\)-methallyl-\(\upomega\)-hydroxy poly (ethylene glycol) ether (HPEG) as macromonomer, was proposed as well.