AUTHOR=Gheorghe Irina , Avram Ionela , Maria Corbu Viorica , Măruţescu Luminita , Popa Marcela , Balotescu Irina , Blăjan Ion , Mateescu Venus , Zaharia Daniela , Dumbravă Andreea Ştefania , Zetu Octavia Emilia , Pecete Ionut , Cristea Violeta Corina , Batalu Dan , Grigoroscuta Mihai Alexandru , Burdusel Mihail , Aldica Gheorghe Virgil , Badica Petre , Datcu Adina Daniela , Ianovici Nicoleta , Bleotu Coralia , Lazar Veronica , Diţu Lia Mara , Chifiriuc Mariana Carmen TITLE=In Vitro Evaluation of MgB2 Powders as Novel Tools to Fight Fungal Biodeterioration of Heritage Buildings and Objects JOURNAL=Frontiers in Materials VOLUME=7 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/materials/articles/10.3389/fmats.2020.601059 DOI=10.3389/fmats.2020.601059 ISSN=2296-8016 ABSTRACT=
The 17th–19th century wooden and stone churches are an iconic symbol for the Romanian national heritage, raising urgent needs for the development of efficient and ecofriendly restoration and preservation solutions. Nanotechnology has a great but largely unexplored potential in this field, providing new tools and methods to achieve higher consolidation and protection efficiency, mainly due to the ability of nanoparticles to inhibit the growth and metabolic activity of different biodeteriorating agents, including fungi. The purpose of the present study was to report for the first time on the efficiency of MgB2 materials, mainly prized for their practical superconducting properties, against a large collection of filamentous fungal strains recently isolated from biodeteriorated wooden and stone heritage objects. Four types of MgB2 powders, with a crystallite size of 42–113 nm, were tested by qualitative (on 149 strains) and quantitative (on 87 strains) assays. The cytotoxicity was evaluated by the microscopic analysis of SiHa cells morphology and Hep2 cell cycle analysis and the ecotoxicity by the