Characterization and Assessment of Synthesized Nano Sulphur in Combination with Organic Amendment on the Availability of Sulphur in Calcareous Soil

Abstract

Background: Sulphur is rapidly being recognized as fourth key nutrient for plants after nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. It functions in several critical metabolic and physiological processes, such as Chlorophyll synthesis, Protein synthesis, Activation of enzymes, Stress tolerance and Seed production. This study was carried to investigate the effect of synthesized nano sulphur in combination with organic amendment to study available sulphur status in calcareous soil. Methods: Nano sulphur was synthesized using reverse microemulsion (water-in-oil microemulsion) technique and characterized at the Centre for Agricultural Nanotechnology, TNAU, Coimbatore. An incubation experiment was carried out with synthesized nano sulphur and gypsum as sulphur source with and without FYM to determine sulphur release at various intervals (7th,15th,30th,45th and 60th days after incubation). Result: It was observed that nano sulphur applied at 40 kg S ha-1 with FYM showed high release of sulphur in calcareous soil in all intervals analysed during the experiment. The addition of organic manures aids in proliferation of heterotrophic sulphur oxidising bacteria which enhances the sulphur oxidation in alkaline soil.

Amelioration with nano-sulfur suspensions mitigates calcium carbonate of calcareous sandy soil

“…The pH change induced by the application of NS suspension could be also due to NS oxidation process. The NS particles are rapidly oxidized by Soxidizing bacteria to hydrogen ions and sulphuric acid within a few weeks under optimal conditions (Shakoor et al 2023;Yazhini et al 2023). The hydrogen ions and sulphuric acid's action causes the relatively high pH value of calcareous sandy soil to be reduced (Akay et al 2019;Amin and Mihoub 2021).…”

“…The high oxidation rate of nanoparticles is a result of their large total surface area and higher reactivity (Degryse et al 2016;Zhao et al 2016). It can be concluded, therefore, that due to rapid oxidation, NS suspension had a markedly short-term effect on soil pH (AbdEl-Azeem and Ramadan 2018; Al balawna and Abu-Abdoun 2021; Almutairi et al 2017;El-Kholy et al 2013;Esmaeil et al 2020;Yazhini et al 2023).…”

“…The released Ca 2+ would react with SO 4 2to form gypsum (CaSO 4 ). However, CaSO 4 formation is largely controlled because of the NS rapid oxidation (Reda and Modaihsh 1990;Yazhini et al 2023). Regardless of pH, CaSO 4 is a good Ca 2+ additive when Ca 2+ is needed.…”

“…Application of nano-sulphur (NS) powder at a rate of 36 kg ha -1 in saline soils decreased pH and increased the availability of macro and micro nutrients (Esmaeil et al 2020). Application of NS powder at a rate of 40 kg ha -1 together with organic fertilizer on calcareous soil released large amounts of sulfur (S) over the 60day incubation period (Yazhini et al 2023). S compounds are used as soil Acidifiers to neutralize CaCO 3 in four forms.…”

“…S compounds are used as soil Acidifiers to neutralize CaCO 3 in four forms. The first one is solid, e.g., ES (Brownrigg et al 2022) and sulphur compost (Abou Hussien et al 2020); the second is an aqueous solution, e.g., SA ) and compost tea enriched by sulphur (Nada et al 2023); the third is a suspension, e.g., Micron S (Almutairi et al 2017); and the fourth is a solid NS (Esmaeil et al 2020;Yazhini et al 2023). However, the use of NS as a suspension is a new strategy and has not yet been tested.…”