Fungal colonization and biomineralization for bioprotection of concrete

TY - JOUR

T1 - Fungal colonization and biomineralization for bioprotection of concrete

AU - Zhao, Jiayue

AU - Dyer, Thomas

AU - Csetenyi, Laszlo

AU - Jones, Rod

AU - Gadd, Geoffrey Michael

N1 - Funding Information: Jiayue Zhao was supported by a joint PhD Scholarship from the China Scholarship Council and School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee (No. 201704910860) which is gratefully acknowledged. Financial support of the Geomicrobiology Group is received from the Natural Environment Research Council [ NE/M01090/1(TeASe) ; NE/M011275/1(CoG 3 ) ] which is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also greatly acknowledged Dr. Yongchang Fan (Division of Physics, University of Dundee) for assistance with scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors

PY - 2022/1/1

Y1 - 2022/1/1

N2 - Concrete can face serious deterioration issues due to different physical, chemical, or biochemical factors. Structural integrity and durability are significantly impaired by cracks which provide channels for water or gases to penetrate concrete matrices, ultimately attacking the steel reinforcements. In this research, we show that a urease-positive fungus, Neurospora crassa, can deposit calcium carbonate on mortar through microbiologically-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) forming a dense biomineralized mycelial network resulting in a protective coating on Portland cement, fly ash, and ground granulated blast furnace slag based mortar. Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction data showed that greater amounts of calcium carbonate were precipitated with increasing mortar porosity. Water repellence was enhanced after fungal colonization and carbonate biodeposition on the surface, and water absorption coefficients improved 17% at least after development of the boioprotective coating. Overall, this work demonstrates that fungal biomineralization could act as biocement to protect porous mineral-based materials from water infiltration, thus improving their durability.

AB - Concrete can face serious deterioration issues due to different physical, chemical, or biochemical factors. Structural integrity and durability are significantly impaired by cracks which provide channels for water or gases to penetrate concrete matrices, ultimately attacking the steel reinforcements. In this research, we show that a urease-positive fungus, Neurospora crassa, can deposit calcium carbonate on mortar through microbiologically-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) forming a dense biomineralized mycelial network resulting in a protective coating on Portland cement, fly ash, and ground granulated blast furnace slag based mortar. Rietveld refinement of X-ray diffraction data showed that greater amounts of calcium carbonate were precipitated with increasing mortar porosity. Water repellence was enhanced after fungal colonization and carbonate biodeposition on the surface, and water absorption coefficients improved 17% at least after development of the boioprotective coating. Overall, this work demonstrates that fungal biomineralization could act as biocement to protect porous mineral-based materials from water infiltration, thus improving their durability.

KW - Biocement

KW - Bioprotection

KW - Calcite

KW - Concrete

KW - Fungi

KW - Microbially-induced carbonate precipitation

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85120666235

U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129793

DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129793

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85120666235

SN - 0959-6526

VL - 330

JO - Journal of Cleaner Production

JF - Journal of Cleaner Production

M1 - 129793

ER -