Alkaliphiles: The Emerging Biological Tools Enhancing Concrete Durability.

Alkaliphiles: The Emerging Biological Tools Enhancing Concrete Durability. Adv Biochem Eng Biotechnol. 2019 May 01;: Authors: Mamo G, Mattiasson B Abstract Concrete is one of the most commonly used building materials ever used. Despite it is a very important and common construction material, concrete is very sensitive to crack formation and requires repair. A variety of chemical-based techniques and materials have been developed to repair concrete cracks. Although the use of these chemical-based repair systems are the best commercially available choices, there have also been concerns related to their use. These repair agents suffer from inefficiency and unsustainability. Most of the products are expensive and susceptible to degradation, exhibit poor bonding to the cracked concrete surfaces, and are characterized by different physical properties such as thermal expansion coefficients which are different to that of concrete. Moreover, many of these repair agents contain chemicals that pose environmental and health hazards. Thus, there has been interest in developing concrete crack repair agents that are efficient, long lasting, safe, and benign to the environment and exhibit physical properties which resemble that of the concrete. The search initiated by these desires brought the use of biomineralization processes as tools in mending concrete cracks. Among biomineralization processes, microbially initiated calcite precipitation has eme...
Source: Advances in Biochemical Engineering Biotechnology - Category: Biotechnology Authors: Tags: Adv Biochem Eng Biotechnol Source Type: research