Calcite seed-assisted microbial induced carbonate precipitation (MICP)

PLoS One. 2021 Feb 9;16(2):e0240763. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240763. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Microbial-induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) is a biological process inducing biomineralization of CaCO3. This can be used to form a solid, concrete-like material. To be able to use MICP successfully to produce solid materials, it is important to understand the formation process of the material in detail. It is well known that crystallization surfaces can influence the precipitation process. Therefore, we present in this contribution a systematic study investigating the influence of calcite seeds on the MICP process. We focus on the changes in the pH and changes of the optical density (OD) signal measured with absorption spectroscopy to analyze the precipitation process. Furthermore, optical microscopy was used to visualize the precipitation processes in the sample and connect them to changes in the pH and OD. We show, that there is a significant difference in the pH evolution between samples with and without calcite seeds present and that the shape of the pH evolution and the changes in OD can give detailed information about the mineral precipitation and transformations. In the presented experiments we show, that amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) can also precipitate in the presence of initial calcite seeds and this can have implications for consolidated MICP materials.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomineralization / physiology*
  • Calcium Carbonate / chemistry*
  • Calcium Carbonate / metabolism
  • Carbonates / chemistry
  • Chemical Precipitation
  • Construction Materials / microbiology*
  • Microscopy / methods
  • Minerals / chemistry
  • Soil
  • Sporosarcina / metabolism

Substances

  • Carbonates
  • Minerals
  • Soil
  • Calcium Carbonate

Supplementary concepts

  • Sporosarcina pasteurii

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Research Council of Norway under project 269084/O70. Additional support was provided by Norwegian Micro- and Nano-Fabrication Facility, NorFab under Research Council of Norway project 245963/F50. https://www.forskningsradet.no/en/ The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.