Study on self-healing effect of cement-based materials cracks based on various inorganic minerals

Inorganic mineral-based self-healing agents were widely used in the self-healing technology for cement-based materials. The self-made microbial self-healing agent applicable to marine environments was presented in this paper, composed of inorganic minerals and microorganisms. A comparative experiment was conducted to compare the healing ability of the self-made microbial self-healing agent with three other inorganic mineral-based self-healing agents. Firstly, the healing efficiency was compared under various crack widths, cracking times, dosages, and substrate types. The results showed that the microbial self-healing agent exhibited the best healing performance. Secondly, the healing products among the various healing agents were analyzed. Compared to the other three inorganic mineral-based self-healing agents, more CaCO3 was generated for healing the cracks by the microbial self-healing agent, which explained its excellent healing performance. Finally, the impact of introducing self-healing agents was investigated on the mechanical properties and durability of cement-based materials. The results demonstrated that the addition of the microbial self-healing agent did not significantly compromise the mechanical properties and durability of cement-based materials. This study demonstrated the unique advantages of the self-made microbial self-healing agent.