Recent Trends in Advanced Polymer Materials in Agriculture Related Applications

Abstract

Over the past few decades, advanced polymeric materials have gained popularity in the development of sustainable agricultural applications. Smart polymeric systems have extensively contributed to the agricultural industry by increasing the efficiency of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers by facilitating controlled release systems and, therefore, enabling lower doses to be used. Superabsorbent polymeric materials have been used as soil conditioners to control the impact of drought, whereas polycationic polymers have been utilized for plant bioengineering. These functions in the environment are complemented by applications within plants as part of the developing range of tools for genetically transforming plants in order to increase productivity and disease resistance. This Review will summarize and discuss the recent developments in the design and application of advanced polymeric systems for precision agriculture related applications. The design criteria of the polymers employed to date, such as polymer structure, as well as the properties of polymer nanoparticles including shape and size will be discussed, and the key findings in the related area will be highlighted. Finally, we will identify future directions for the exploration of functional polymers with the ultimate aim of advancing sustainable agriculture.

Photoinduced post-modification of graphitic carbon nitride-embedded hydrogels: synthesis of 'hydrophobic hydrogels' and pore substructuring

“…Recently, utilization of hydrogels in nutrient delivery in agricultural science and long-term drug delivery exhibits a significant interest [ 43 ]. Most of these methods require aqueous formulations to be delivered over a certain amount of time, yet a hydrophobicity for a long-term open-air application must be possessed in order to prevent the drying and a loss of a part [ 44 ]. Hydrophobic hydrogel is a novel concept that administers the surface properties of the initial network.…”

Polymer nanoparticles pass the plant interface

“…Sustainable arable agriculture must provide sufficient nutrition for the growing global population. 40 To date, it has generally managed to increase productivity in line with growing need. As with other parts of the biosphere, the quality of available land is decreasing due to climate change, pollution and over-fertilisation leading to low nutrient use efficiency, and so we need to ensure that we understand, as far as is possible, new and increasing threats to crop production.…”

Superabsorbent Polymer Seed Coating Reduces Leaching of Fungicide but Does Not Alter Their Effectiveness in Suppressing Pathogen Infestation

“…Oksińska et al [ 47 ] identified two bacteria, Rhizobium radiobacter 28SG and Bacillus aryabhattai 31SG, isolated from the watered SAP, that were able to biodegrade up to 36% of the similar copolymer of acrylamide and potassium acrylate containing 5.28% of unpolymerized monomers in 30 days. Despite the expected biodegradability, there are efforts to replace synthetic SAPs with natural ones such as starch [ 21 ], cellulose [ 14 ], chitosan or alginate [ 22 ], or with synthetic-biopolymer hybrid SAPs that combine the desired chemical properties of synthetic polymers–such as mechanical strength, high water capacity, and stability, and lower cost and biological safety of natural polymers [ 48 ]. Proteins are also currently gaining a lot of attention as a replacement for synthetic SAPs because they are biodegradable and available from agricultural waste [ 49 , 50 ].…”