Engineering living building materials for enhanced bacterial viability and mechanical properties

iScience

Mija H. Hubler¹  Wil V. Srubar, III²  Sherri Cook²  Jishen Qiu²  Jeffrey C. Cameron³  Juliana Artier³ 

[1] Corresponding author;Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, 1111 Engineering Dr, Boulder, CO 80309, USA;Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, University of Colorado Boulder, 4001 Discovery Dr, Boulder, CO 80303, USA;

关键词: Civil Engineering;    Materials Synthesis;    Biomaterials;    Composite Materials;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Summary: Living building materials (LBMs) utilize microorganisms to produce construction materials that exhibit mechanical and biological properties. A hydrogel-based LBM containing bacteria capable of microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) was recently developed. Here, LBM design factors, i.e., gel/sand ratio, inclusion of trehalose, and MICP pathways, are evaluated. The results show that non-saturated LBM (gel/sand = 0.13) and gel-saturated LBM (gel/sand = 0.30) underwent distinct failure modes. The inclusion of trehalose maintains bacterial viability under ambient conditions with low relative humidity, without affecting mechanical properties of the LBM. Comparison of biotic and abiotic LBM shows that MICP efficiency in this material is subject to the pathway selected: the LBM with heterotrophic ureolytic Escherichia coli demonstrated the most mechanical enhancement from the abiotic controls, compared with either ureolytic or CO2-concentrating mechanisms from Synechococcus. The study shows that tailoring of LBM properties can be accomplished in a manner that considers both LBM microstructure and MICP pathways.

【 授权许可】

Unknown