Hydrophobic Properties of Biofilm-Enriched Hybrid Mortar

Stefan Grumbein; Dionis Minev; Marwa Tallawi; Kathrin Boettcher; Friedrich Prade; Franz Pfeiffer; Christian Ulrich Grosse; Oliver Lieleg

doi:10.1002/adma.201602123

Hydrophobic Properties of Biofilm-Enriched Hybrid Mortar

Adv Mater. 2016 Oct;28(37):8138-8143. doi: 10.1002/adma.201602123. Epub 2016 Jul 8.

Authors

Stefan Grumbein¹, Dionis Minev¹, Marwa Tallawi¹, Kathrin Boettcher¹, Friedrich Prade², Franz Pfeiffer², Christian Ulrich Grosse³, Oliver Lieleg⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering and Institute of Medical Engineering IMETUM, Technische Universität München, 85748, Garching, Germany.
² Physics Department and Institute of Medical Engineering IMETUM, Technische Universität München, 85748, Garching, Germany.
³ Chair of Non-destructive Testing, Center for Building Materials, Technische Universität München, 81245, Munich, Germany.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering and Institute of Medical Engineering IMETUM, Technische Universität München, 85748, Garching, Germany. oliver.lieleg@tum.de.

PMID: 27391813
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201602123

Abstract

A mortar hybrid material is presented in which biomineralization processes are stimulated by adding a biological component, i.e., bacterial biofilm, to standard mortar. A material is obtained that exhibits increased roughness on the microscale and the nanoscale. Accordingly, the hybrid mortar not only resists wetting but also suppresses the uptake of water by capillary forces.

Keywords: biofilms; biomineralization; lotus effect; roughness; wetting resistance.

MeSH terms

Bacteria
Biofilms
Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions*
Wettability