Hydrogel composed of potassium acrylate, acrylamide, and mineral as soil conditioner under saline conditions

Abstract

Hydrogels have potential as soil conditioners due to their high capacity to retain water and mitigate soil salinity. However, investigations under saline conditions are necessary because there are losses in both water absorption and salinity mitigation depending on the composition of hydrogel and ions involved in salinity. In this work, we studied a commercial hydrogel in two experiments. The first experiment was conducted in the laboratory to evaluate the absorption by the hydrogel of water with electrical conductivity (EC) of 0.5, 1.5, 3.0, and 4.5 dS m -1 , promoted by NaCl. The second experiment was conducted in a greenhouse in a 2 × 4 factorial scheme (with and without hydrogel × EC of the first experiment). Although salinity reduced water absorption by hydrogel by 84 %, the polymer applied in a sandy soil under saline conditions reduced water losses by 58 %. However, hydrogel did not increase the final soil moisture (~ 0.10 g g -1 ). The polymer reduced Na + concentration in leachate from 1,499 to 1,219 mg L -1 at the highest salinity level (4.5 dS m -1 ), but it increased Na + soil availability by 0.1 mg kg -1 in comparison with polymer absence. Hydrogel application increased Na + content in plants from 9 to 13 mg kg -1 at the highest salinity, while K + content was 10 to 16 mg kg -1 lower than that observed without a polymer. Hydrogel 0.07 % (w/w) reduced maize biomass, indicating damage by monovalent ions, compromising the polymer potential under salinity.

Effect of using hydrogel polymers on morphometric, forage production, and nutritional characteristics of cactus pear

“…The use of hydrogel ensures moisture retention in the soil, increasing water availability for plants (Saha et al, 2020;Sousa et al, 2023;Edvan et al, 2023), being a promising strategy to be used in the production of plants of agronomic interest in arid regions, as it enhances the germination process and initial development of crops (Ai et al, 2020). In sandy textured soil under saline conditions, Costa et al (2022) found that the use of hydrogel polymer reduced water loss by 58%. In the production of Pinus pinea, El-Asmar et al (2017) observed that the hydrogel promoted increases of 25% in biomass, and, at the same time, prolonged the survival time of the seedlings.…”

Physicomechanical and Morphological Characterization of Multi-Structured Potassium-Acrylate-Based Hydrogels

“…These unique materials are being used in several commercial applications, for example, as ophthalmic devices, biosensors, biological membranes, and drug carriers [ 1 , 2 ]. Potential applications of hydrogels as soil conditioners and as removal agents for heavy metal ions have also been mentioned in the literature [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. The properties of hydrogels strongly depend on the synthesis, concentration, and nature of components and the polymerization process.…”