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Living mortars-simulation study on organic lime mortar used in heritage structures

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Abstract

The study explores the effective role of fermented plant extracts in hydraulic lime mortars towards the bacterial precipitation of calcium carbonate. Two frequently used plant extracts that are rich in carbohydrates, jaggery (unrefined sugar) and kadukkai (Terminilia chebulia) are fermented with and without lime for seven days in semi aerobic condition to study the end products and its possible interaction in lime mortar. The lime added fermented liquid has initiated the growth of Bacillus subtilis with a greater yield of lactic acid, ethanol and CO2 as compared to fermented liquid without lime. Analytical techniques like XRD, FESEM and TGA-DTA were used to study the hydrated phases and microstructural behaviour of the hydraulic lime mortars prepared with the above fermented liquids. The interaction of lime added fermented liquid with hydraulic lime has resulted the bio-precipitation of calcium carbonate polymorphs by Bacillus subtilis and enhanced the internal carbonation by absorption of carbon-di-oxide supplied by organics and shown greater compressive strength and bulk density in contrast to reference mortar.

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Data Availability Statement

This manuscript has no associated data or the data will not be deposited. [Authors’ comment: There are no associated data available.]

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore for accommodating the sophisticated analytical techniques for the successful completion of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632014, India

    Saridhe Sriram Pradeep & Thirumalini Selvaraj

  2. Applied and Industrial Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, 600 036, India

    Sathyanarayana N. Gummadi

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Pradeep, S.S., Gummadi, S.N. & Selvaraj, T. Living mortars-simulation study on organic lime mortar used in heritage structures. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 137, 499 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02635-5

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