Cost-effective microbial induced ZnO synthesis for building material: Antibacterial, photocatalytic and mechanical characteristics

Utilization of effective and economical nanoparticles/nanocomposite materials in civil engineering is still remaining a significant challenge in current research arena. In this study, microbial-induced precipitation was formulated for integration of white cement mortar to enhance efficiency and evaluate its potential applications in antibacterial and photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue. Hexagonal wurtzite structure of synthesized ZnO exhibited high crystallinity with significant contribution of hydration product after 28days analysis. Morphology of produced material showed less homogeneity with high densification and morphology altered from needles-like structure to tube with the integration of adsorbent ratio from ZnO-0 to 2.5, presented all the required chemical components in EDXS analysis. The water absorption rate in sample slurry of ZnO-2.5 exhibited significant reduction of 52.75 % compared to baseline water absorption rate of 12.71 % in commercial ZnO and contact angle was noted higher as 89.54°, which indicates hydrophilic character of material. The highest compressive strength of sample ZnO-2.5 was noted 508.89 kgf/cm² in 28days of wet curing method, indicated the effective gel formation of calcium silicate in samples. Maximum methylene blue dye degradation recorded 79.95 % in case of using ZnO-2.5, which showed another influential character with excellent efficiency. In addition, prepared sample has shown almost complete bactericidal efficiency under simulated sunlight. Compared to commercial white cement mortar, biological white cement mortar can save NT$149,531 per cubic meter at industrial scale. Therefore, results indicate that microbial-induced zinc precipitation incorporated using hydrothermal preparation of biological white cement mortar improves the surface properties for applications and reduces its cost of study.