Antimicrobial Concrete
Antimicrobial Concrete -By Biswajeet Majhi 1. INTRODUCTION Concrete is the most widely used construction material for various infrastructures worldwide. However, concrete structures in specific aggressive environments, such as sewer systems, marine engineering, buildings are exposed to high humidity and they quickly suffer from microbial attachment, colonization, eventually, deterioration. For example, the most typical problem reinforced concrete structures face in sewer systems is microbial-induced corrosion, which is still commonly referred to as a sulfide (H2S) gas problem. The process is initiated when sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) convert sulfate into hydrogen sulfide gas under anaerobic conditions, which is converted into corrosive sulfuric acid by sulfur-oxidizing bacteria (SOB) of the genus Thiobacillus. 2. How does it help? In recent years, with the rapid development of nanotechnology, some researchers have tried to introduce some nanoparticles into concrete to inhibit