"Bio-concrete" automatically repairs cracks
Bacteria become "healing agents" or can open a new era of biological construction
The reporter still remembers the robot in the "Terminator" movie that can heal automatically after injury? Its magical ability is attributed to liquid metal alloys. Recently, microbiologists at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have created a similarly cool material: the self-healing “bio-concrete†that effectively repairs its own cracks with the help of a limestone-producing bacterium.
Concrete is the most common building material in the world. No matter how carefully mixed and reinforced, all concrete will eventually produce cracks, and sometimes cracks will cause the building to collapse. Therefore, people have been trying to make concrete more durable. “Concrete cracks can occur in concrete cracks. If there are cracks on the wall floor, the basement and garage may enter the water. The steel that penetrates into the concrete will rust the steel and the building will collapse.†Delft University of Technology Professor Hank Yox said, "We have invented a kind of bio-concrete - concrete that uses microbes to heal automatically."
According to the Yahoo website on the 17th, Yokos has been studying this kind of "bio-concrete" since 2006. At that time, a concrete technical expert suggested whether bacteria could be used to repair the concrete by itself. There are many challenges to solving this problem. Concrete is like a rock, very dry and extremely alkaline. The “repairing bacteria†must be dormant for many years before being activated by water. Yox finally chose spores because they like the alkaline environment and the spores that can survive for decades without food and oxygen.
Yox said: "The next problem is that bacteria must not only be activated in concrete, but also produce repair materials - limestone." Bacteria must have food. Sugar is an option, but sugar can make the concrete soft and fragile. Finally he chose calcium lactate. Yox puts the bacteria and calcium lactate into capsules made of biodegradable plastic and then adds the capsules to the wet concrete.
Bio-concrete looks the same as ordinary concrete, but with the addition of an additional ingredient "healing agent". After the concrete cracks, the water enters the crack to open the capsule, and the bacteria begin to germinate, proliferate and consume calcium lactate, and combine calcium and carbonate ions through metabolism to form calcite or limestone, gradually bridging the crack.
Jox hopes that this concrete can open a new era of biological architecture. “This is a combination of natural and building materials. Nature provides us with a lot of useful things for free – like this kind of limestone-producing bacteria. If we fill it into building materials, it is really beneficial. It’s a new concept. A good example of combining nature with the built environment."
Editor-in-chief
The creation of bio-concrete reminds people of the famous discovery of Harald Zurhausen, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, for self-healing. This medical phenomenon, which is used to explain the survival of humans and other living organisms in the event of external damage or intrinsic variability, is now used in the life support of modern industry. Cross-border always brings people endless imagination. When the spontaneous self-healing process is revealed in concrete, the building will usher in a new "life", it will become a part of nature, with "growth" Ability. Sometimes, the surprises that scientists bring us are far more worth looking forward to than sci-fi movies.
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