THE APPLICATION OF HYDROGELS IN MODERN AGRICULTURE

Abstract

More and more modern agricultural crops require an increasing amount of agrochemicals, however, as modern agricultural mechanization cannot meet the targeted delivery of conventional agrochemicals, over time, soil saturation occurs. After a number of years, agrochemicals become poison for the land on which they were used, and when the land is already contaminated, it is difficult to clean it. For that reason, modern agriculture is turning to the controlled use of agrochemicals. In this work, biodegradable carboxymethylcellulose - based biodegradable hydrogels were synthesized, and MWCNT carbon nanotubes were added to the gels to achieve conductivity. The purpose of these gels is to release a certain amount of agrochemicals into the soil depending on the composition of the soil, temperature, and pH value. Prepared hydrogels with and without the addition of MWCNT were added to the soil in an amount of 1% by weight of soil. Two types of fertilizers were used in the samples: microbiological and mineral fertilizers. The content of phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen were measured in the samples; phosphorus and potassium in the samples were determined by the UV-VIS method, and nitrogen by the Kjeldahl method. During the measurement, the pH of the samples was determined using a sensor over the samples with MWCNT inside and the temperature of the samples was measured. In this way, the dependence of the released amount of chemicals on the pH and temperature of the soil was monitored. The measurement results showed that there is a controlled release of fertilizers from hydrogels, while in the case of microbiological fertilizers there is a release at the beginning, but this process stops in the end, much faster than in the case of mineral fertilizers.