Geopolymer is a new environment-friendly cementitious material, and the development of geopolymer can reduce the carbon dioxide emission caused by the development of cement industry. Geopolymer materials not only have excellent mechanical properties, but also have a series of excellent properties such as fire resistance and corrosion resistance. Most industrial solid waste and waste incineration bottom ash are piled up at will, which not only occupies land resources, but also has a bad impact on the environment. Recycling them can be used as raw materials for preparing geopolymers. Geopolymer materials can effectively adsorb heavy metals, dyes, and other radioactive pollution, which is very beneficial to society's future development. However, due to the excellent properties of geopolymer materials, its application goes beyond that. Some useful information about geopolymer materials was introduced in this paper. The paper included the geopolymerization, the source of raw materials, the types of activators, the preparation methods, and the different application fields of geopolymer materials. The factors affecting the fresh properties and mechanical properties of geopolymer materials were discussed. In this paper, the shortcomings and application limitations of geopolymer materials were summarized, and their progress was summarized to lay a theoretical foundation for the long-term development of geopolymer materials. • Geopolymerization, the material source, and activators were summarised. • The preparation and properties of geopolymer materials were analysed in detail. • The application of geopolymer materials was reviewed. • Existing restrictions on the development of the geopolymer materials were summarised. • Several methods of developing geopolymers were proposed.