A new bioslurry-induced restoration method via biomineralization for fragmented ceramic cultural relics

Abstract

This study presents a new restoration method for fragmented ceramic cultural relics using bioslurry-induced biocementation via a microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) process. Bioslurry is highly urease active calcium carbonate crystals, which serve as filling and cementitious material with newly induced calcite precipitation when supplying cementation solution (urea and calcium source). With the pre-filling of bioslurry and newly induced calcite crystals, the fragmented ceramic can be connected and the gap along the fracture surface can be sealed. Due to the high urease active bacteria cells embedded in bioslurry, the ceramic restoration can be completed in 24 h with the optimal concentration of cementation solution of 1.6 M. Taking the advantage of bonding effect gained from newly induced calcite precipitation, the tensile strength was improved up to 0.92 MPa through a customized tensile strength test. This is satisfactory to ensure the stability and integrity of fragmented ceramic after bioslurry-induced restoration. A demonstrative restoration has been completed on fragmented ceramics from Ming Dynasty. With the good bonding strength and high stability of bioslurry-induced calcite precipitation, the proposed bioslurry-induced restoration method contributes valuable insights to the conservation of ceramic cultural relics. Other prospective applications include the restoration of masonry relics and bone relics.

Keywords

Bioslurry / Ceramic relics / Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) / Restoration / Tensile strength

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Yang Yang: Writing - original draft, Formal analysis, Data curation, Conceptualization. Han Zhang: Investigation. Liang Cheng: Writing - review & editing. Lin Ye: Conceptualization. Yuanjian Liu: Conceptualization. Jinquan Shi: Writing - review & editing, Methodology. Jianwei Zhang: Writing - review & editing. Yang Xiao: Writing - review & editing. Hanlong Liu: Writing - review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Hanlong Liu is the Editor-in-Chief of Biogeotechnics, Yang Xiao is Executive Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Biogeotechnics, Jinquan Shi and Liang Cheng are the Associate Editors of Biogeotechnics, and Jianwei Zhang is editorial board member of Biogeotechnics, they were not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge that the study reported in this paper was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52108300), Entrepreneurship and Innovation Support for Overseas Student, Chongqing, China (Grant No. CX2022007) and Research Institutions Performance Incentive and Guidance Project (Grant No. 2023JXJL-YFX0078).

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