Abstract
AbstractFor millennia, artists and architects around the world used natural stone for the carving of sculptures and the construction of monuments, such as Roman, Greek, and Maya temples, the European cathedrals, and the Taj Mahal, just to name a few. Currently, the survival of these irreplaceable cultural and historical assets is under threat due to their continued degradation caused by various biotic and abiotic weathering processes that affect not only the aesthetic appearance of these structures, but also their durability and survival. The natural precipitation of calcium carbonate minerals by bacteria has been proposed for conservative interventions in monument restoration. This chapter reviews the application of biomineralization by (indigenous) bacterial carbonatogenesis as a novel technology for the protection and consolidation of altered ornamental materials. Carbonatogenesis is based on the ability of some bacteria to induce calcium carbonate precipitation. Laboratory and in situ results support the efficacy of bacterial carbonatogenesis, since remarkable protection and consolidation are achieved on the surface and in depth, without alterations in color or porosity, and without fostering the development of microbiota that could be harmful to the stone material. A discussion on the advantages of this novel biotechnology is provided. Challenges and future work on bioconsolidation of stone artifacts are also outlined.
Highlights
The stone built heritage undergoes severe deterioration and damage resulting in the irreversible loss of priceless cultural assets (Crispim et al 2003; Negi and Sarethy 2019)
The pathways of calcium carbonate formation described above are ubiquitous in nature, accounting for the common occurrence of microbial carbonate precipitation (MCP) and confirms what Boquet et al (1973) earlier reported, i.e., that most soil bacteria are able to induce the precipitation of carbonates under suitable conditions
These authors investigated the capacity of Bacillus pumilus for biomineralization on marble and reported that the rate of stone loss was reduced by the fine layer of bacterial calcium carbonate precipitated and B. pumilus proved to be useful as a candidate for in situ applications for stone conservation (Daskalakis et al 2015)
Summary
The stone built heritage undergoes severe deterioration and damage resulting in the irreversible loss of priceless cultural assets (Crispim et al 2003; Negi and Sarethy 2019). Deterioration of marble at the cathedral of Milan has been associated with this type of organic acids (Strzelczyk 1981) All these types of alteration processes cause a gradual increasing of the material porosity, degrading its mechanical characteristics, causing the loss of cohesion and disintegration, and leading to their complete destruction. It is only in the last decades that this concern has received serious attention from scientists including archaeologists, geologists, chemists, biologists, and conservators aiming for the search of preventive and remedial strategies to preserve these historical monuments. Many attempts were directed towards the conservation and consolidation of such structures by using conventional methods including the use of inorganic and organic products that can act as protective coatings and/or consolidant agents (Lazzarini and Laurenzi Tabasso 2010; Rodriguez-Navarro et al 2011)
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