Department of Mechanical Engineering, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY, 13902, USA.
Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA.
Sci Rep. 2019 Feb 14;9(1):2075. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-39156-8.
Concrete is susceptible to cracking owing to drying shrinkage, freeze-thaw cycles, delayed ettringite formation, reinforcement corrosion, creep and fatigue, etc. Continuous inspection and maintenance of concrete infrastructure require onerous labor and high costs. If the damaging cracks can heal by themselves without any human interference or intervention, that could be of great attraction. In this study, a novel self-healing approach is investigated, in which fungi are applied to heal cracks in concrete by promoting calcium carbonate precipitation. The goal of this investigation is to discover the most appropriate species of fungi for the application of biogenic crack repair. Our results showed that, despite the significant pH increase owing to the leaching of calcium hydroxide from concrete, Aspergillus nidulans (MAD1445), a pH regulatory mutant, could grow on concrete plates and promote calcium carbonate precipitation.
混凝土由于干燥收缩、冻融循环、延迟钙矾石形成、钢筋腐蚀、蠕变和疲劳等原因容易产生裂缝。对混凝土基础设施进行连续检查和维护需要繁重的劳动力和高昂的成本。如果损坏的裂缝可以自行愈合，而无需任何人为干预或介入，那将是非常有吸引力的。在这项研究中，研究了一种新的自修复方法，即在混凝土中应用真菌通过促进碳酸钙沉淀来修复裂缝。本研究的目的是发现最适合生物源裂缝修复应用的真菌种类。我们的结果表明，尽管混凝土中氢氧化钙浸出导致 pH 值显著升高，但一种 pH 值调节突变体——产黄青霉（MAD1445）仍能在混凝土板上生长并促进碳酸钙沉淀。
