Enzymatic Detection Methods For Organic Matters In Mortars Containing Earth

Chinese people started to calcine lime no later than 3000B.C. As time went by, pure lime could no longer fulfill people’s needs, therefore people mixed clay and sand with lime, sifted and pounded the mixture to have finally invented "tabia". By adding organic materials---e.g. egg white, blood material, sticky rice, brown sugar and tung oil---into inorganic materials such as lime mortar, earth and tabia, organic-inorganic mortar was created. This is a great invention in the history of Chinese architecture materials, also a great achievement tested by thousands years of time.This research is an important topic of the National Technology Support Program of China (No.2012BAK14B05), the "Compass Project" of China (No. [2011] 1806), and the "Regional Creative Alliance" of State Administration of Cultural Heritage. The paper intends to make contribution to architectural preservation by solving the analysis problem of organic matters in earth and tabia through enzymatic methods.By adding proteins, saccharides and lipids into inorganic materials, the functions of the mortar will be enhanced, and this partially attributes to the effect of biomineralization. The added organic matters can lower the activation energy of crystal nucleation, transform the crystal form from calcite to harder and stronger forms of aragonite and vaterite, and therefore enhance the overall function of the mortar. Organic matters act as the frame or structural template for crystal nucleation and growth, and control the nucleation, growth and morphology of the crystals.Currently, apart from the traditional analytical methods for detection of organic matter, e.g. chemical analysis, FTIR, chromatography analysis, mass spectrometry analysis, LC-MS, there are also bio-chemical methods such as immunological detection of blood, ELISA for egg white, and enzymatic detection for sucrose and starch. These methods were primarily applied in fields of food industry, biology and medical science, and rarely used in the field of mortars, so it is of significance that we introduce these methods into the mortar analysis system.Chemical analysis was conducted in this paper, introduced the preparation process of simulated mortars, illustrated the methods and procedures, and performed analyses on simulated mortars and historical mortar samples. Conducted FTIR on egg white mortar, brown sugar mortar and sticky rice mortar, introduced the principles an procedures, and performed analyses on simulated mortars. Conducted ELISA on egg white mortar, introduced the principles an procedures, and performed analyses on simulated egg white mortars and historical mortar samples suspected to contain protein. Conducted enzymatic method on brown sugar mortar and sticky rice mortar, introduced the principles and procedures, and performed analyses on simulated mortars and historical mortar samples suspected to contain sugar and starch.This paper reviewed the principles of biomineralization, reviewed the detection methods of organic matters in mortars, performed chemical analyses, FTIR and enzymatic analyses on simulated and historical mortars, trying to solve the analysis problem of organic matters in earth and tabia through enzymatic methods, and finally achieved satisfying results.