Pores and microanalysis of microbe-inspired nano-CaCO 3 cementing sand columns

This paper introduced an innovative bioengineering method of consolidating incompact sand by urea hydrolysis producing calcite cementation under the inducement of reproductive urease microbe. The result of mercury intrusion porosimetry showed the pore volume fractions of sand columns cemented by microbe-inspired nano-CaCO3 on an accelerating reduction during the time of cementation, the process of which represented the bulk density of nano-CaCO3 cementing sand columns that reinforced themselves positively all the time. The white precipitate particles exhibited a uniformed distribution of about 15 µm size and of a hexahedral shape mostly under SEM. Based on the Scherrer equation, the crystallite size of the white precipitate was calculated for 18.5 nm. The diffraction pattern of the white precipitate under TEM was taken in alignment with the 52 inorganic crystal composed of three elements of Ca, C, and O in PCPDFWIN-2000 and the precipitate was identified as ID86-2334 calcite calcium carbonate.