Bacterial binding could lead to self-healing buildings and historic structures

The team have set out to produce a solution that can be applied to building stone and masonry to give it self-healing properties.

Once applied, the team believe that any sort of damage to the stone will trigger the release of bacteria and a range of precursor chemicals, allowing damage to self-repair.

Microorganisms such as bacteria can produce mineral deposits when mixed with certain precursor chemicals, including calcium carbonate, which is one of the main components in rocks and various other masonry materials.

As part of the study, the team will look at the different ways that bacteria and precursor chemicals can be introduced into building stone and masonry.

“When present in masonry, the bacteria that produce the mineral deposits become entombed as spores, alongside the chemical precursors, within the mineral that it is producing,” said the study’s principal investigator Dr Mike Harbottle, from Cardiff University’s School of Engineering.