## 1 Introduction  
The rapid growth of urban infrastructure developments and industrialization globally has created a huge demand and consumption of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), which contributes significantly to CO\({}_{2}\) emissions [1, 2]. The ever growing steel and iron industry results in a rapid generation of by-products (GGBFS) of about 300-350 Mt every year [3]. Worldwide cement manufacturing is projected to soar from 3.27 gigatons to 4.83 gigatons by 2030 and grow by 45% in 20 years, as compared to the present rate of production [4, 5]. The current method used to produce OPC is energy intensive and emits an amount of 5-7% of global CO\({}_{2}\) emissions, which deplete the ozone layer and causes global warming [5, 6, 7]. It also consumes a vast amount of natural resources such as fossil fuel and limestone, as 1 ton of cement requires about 2.8 tons of raw material, which then generates about 1 ton of CO\({}_{2}\)[8, 9]. The CO\({}_{2}\) emission footprint resulting from cement production is set to grow by 2.34 gigatons (Gt) CO\({}_{2}\) emissions in 2050 [5, 10, 11]. Hence, it is essential to develop alternative binding material to supplant OPC to minimise carbon dioxide emissions produced from the manufacturing of OPC and meet the sustainability requirements. Alkali activated binder is one of the innovations in replacing OPC which can be produced from waste materials such as mine tailings, iron slag foundry sand, fly ash, copper slag and granulated furnace slag with high alkaline activators, namely reactive silica, NaOH, KOH and silicates solution [12, 13, 14]. The role of the alkaline activator is to form an alkali activated gel material by releasing the Si and Al ions from the precursor and breaking the Si-O-Al, Si-O-Si and Al-O-Al bonds to the solution [15, 16]. Alkali activated materials (AAMs) have excellent attributes and mechanical properties such as high mechanical strength, excellent fire resistance, and low and energy saving liquid limits and shrinkages during production compared to OPC production [17]. Although AAMs have the above-mentioned excellent mechanical and geotechnical properties, the environmental impact associated with them is highly dependent on the type of precursor material and the alkaline activator used [18]. According to previous studies in alkali activated materials the combination of alkalis and silicates possess high activation potential that produce AAMs with excellent mechanical properties [15]. Alkali activated materials using a combination of NaOH and NaSiO\({}_{3}\) as alkaline activators is a well-established research that is reported in the literature. [PERSON] et al. [19] demonstrated the feasibility to develop alkali activated granulated blast furnace slag-based binder using sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide as alkaline activators with a maximum strength of 44 MPa. [PERSON] et al. [20] found that the UCS of AAM made with GGBFS and fly ash-cured at ambient temperature reached 77 MPa after 90 days curing [20]. [PERSON] et al. [21] reported that AMMs prepared using GGBFS as a precursor and NaOH/NaSiO\({}_{3}\) solution yielded a UCS of 70 MPa after 28 days of curing at ambient temperatures. [PERSON] et al. [22] found that the UCS of AAMs prepared with fly ash, GGBFS, and Na\({}_{2}\)SiO\({}_{3}\) as an activating agent, cured at ambient temperature for 7 days, reached up to 40 MPa. [PERSON] et al. [22] further demonstrated the feasibility of developing GGBFS/metakaolinite based AAMs using silica source and sodium hydroxide as activating agents; a maximum UCS of 60 MPa was attained by curing at room temperature for 28 days. [PERSON] [23] produced an alkaline activated binary cement (GGBFS and OPC) and activated it with NaOH and silica fume; mortars produced UCS from 10 to 45 MPa after 90 days of curing at room temperature [23]. [PERSON] et al. [24] blended Taftan pumice (95%) and GGBFS (5%), and used a combination of NaOH, and Na\({}_{2}\)SiO\({}_{3}\) to achieve a UCS between 30 and 36 MPa.