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Screening of bacteria for self-healing of concrete cracks and optimization of the microbial calcium precipitation process

  • Biotechnological products and process engineering
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Abstract

A novel high-throughput strategy was developed to determine the calcium precipitation activity (CPA) of mineralization bacteria used for self-healing of concrete cracks. A bacterial strain designated as H4 with the highest CPA of 94.8 % was screened and identified as a Bacillus species based on 16S rDNA sequence and phylogenetic tree analysis. Furthermore, the effects of certain influential factors on the microbial calcium precipitation process of H4 were evaluated. The results showed that lactate and nitrate are the best carbon and nitrogen sources, with optimal concentrations of approximately 25 and 18 mM, respectively. The H4 strain is able to maintain a high CPA in the pH range of 9.5–11.0, and a suitable initial spore concentration is 4.0 × 107 spores/ml. Moreover, an ambient Ca2+ concentration greater than 60 mM resulted in a serious adverse impact not only on the CPA but also on the growth of H4, suggesting that the maintenance of the Ca2+ concentration at a low level is necessary for microbial self-healing of concrete cracks.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51120185002, No. 51578339) and American Journal Experts for English improvement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Life Science, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-environmental Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    J. L. Zhang, R. S. Wu, Y. M. Li, J. Y. Zhong & X. Deng

  2. Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Durability for Marine Civil Engineering, The Key Laboratory on Durability of Civil Engineering in Shenzhen, School of Civil Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    J. L. Zhang, B. Liu, N. X. Han & F. Xing

  3. Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Civil Engineering Materials, Nanjing, 211189, China

    B. Liu

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  1. J. L. Zhang
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  2. R. S. Wu
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  3. Y. M. Li
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  4. J. Y. Zhong
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  5. X. Deng
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  6. B. Liu
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  7. N. X. Han
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  8. F. Xing
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Correspondence to X. Deng or F. Xing.

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All of the authors of this article (J.L. Zhang, R.S. Wu, Y.M. Li, J.Y. Zhong, X. Deng, B. Liu, N.X. Han and F. Xing) declare that they have no conflicts of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Zhang, J.L., Wu, R.S., Li, Y.M. et al. Screening of bacteria for self-healing of concrete cracks and optimization of the microbial calcium precipitation process. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 100, 6661–6670 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7382-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-016-7382-2

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