Adding bacteria into cement to avoid catastrophic material failures.

What is it about?

We use computer simulations to show that doping colloidal materials with only a small amount of active constituents can be a way to control their mechanical properties, both linear elasticity and nonlinear yielding behaviors, i.e., how the materials fail. These protocols open new routes to safer and adaptive materials.

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Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Brittle failures of construction materials cause catastrophes. We can control such failure mode and make the materials more ductile by embedding active constituents into dense colloidal materials, like cement, while optimizing the balance between their desired ductility and mechanical strength.