NaAlg-g-AA Hydrogels: Candidates in Sustainable Agriculture Applications

Abstract

Nowadays, the degradation of agricultural soil due to various factors should be a major concern for everyone. In this study, a new sodium alginate-g-acrylic acid-based hydrogel was developed simultaneously by cross-linking and grafting with accelerated electrons to be used as soil remediation. The effect of irradiation dose and NaAlg contents on the gel fraction, network and structural parameters, sol–gel analysis, swelling power, and swelling kinetics of NaAlg-g-AA hydrogels have been investigated. It was demonstrated that NaAlg hydrogels show significative swelling power that is greatly dependent on their composition and irradiation dose; they keep the structure and are not degraded in different pH conditions and different water sources. Diffusion data revealed a non-Fickian transport mechanism (0.61–0.99) also specific to cross-linked hydrogels. The prepared hydrogels were proved as excellent candidates in sustainable agriculture applications.

Poly(Acrylic Acid)-Sodium Alginate Superabsorbent Hydrogels Synthesized by Electron Beam Irradiation Part I: Impact of Initiator Concentration and Irradiation Dose on Structure, Network Parameters and Swelling Properties

“…The results presented so far up to this point complement other previously obtained studies [ 55 ] and show that the addition of PEO made it possible, at the same initiator concentration of 0.1%, to obtain hydrogels with improved properties at lower irradiation doses (S max , porosity, cross-link density).…”

Progress in the Preparation of Stimulus-Responsive Cellulose Hydrogels and Their Application in Slow-Release Fertilizers

“…Usually, chemical crosslinked hydrogels are achieved by forming covalent bonds among the polymer chains in the presence of crosslinking agents or under specific external conditions. Such procedures might involve covalent bond graft, free-radical polymerization, click chemistry, enzymatic reactions, heat dehydration, and ionic and radiation (e.g., gamma and ultraviolet rays, or electron beam) [3,15,31,59] crosslinking [66][67][68][69][70]. Common chemical crosslinked hydrogels include PAM hydrogels [71], polyvinyl alcohol hydrogels [72], acrylic hydrogels [73] and so on.…”

“…Although chemical crosslinked hydrogel has the mature preparing techniques and wide range of applications, its crosslinking process is usually tedious, and the introduced crosslinking agent may be toxic [74]. The chemical hydrogels synthesized via radiation without toxic crosslinking agent are relatively pure and safe, which are suitable for agriculture [70], biomedical and pharmaceutical applications [75].…”

Structure Effects on Swelling Properties of Hydrogels Based on Sodium Alginate and Acrylic Polymers

“…The synthesis of new hydrogel structures based on synthetic polymers and polysaccharides has been the subject of numerous studies. The most commonly used polysaccharides include chitosan [10,11], alginate [9,[12][13][14], starch [15][16][17], cellulose [18], carboxymethylcellulose [19,20], hyaluronic acid [21], etc. These biopolymers have several desirable features, such as being abundant, inexpensive, renewable, biodegradable, polyfunctional, highly reactive chemically, and possessing a wide variety of properties as well as adsorption capacities [15,22,23].…”

“…Another approach involves the simultaneous radical polymerisation of the monomer, cross-linking of the polymer and grafting of the resulting polymer onto sodium alginate molecules. In the studies published so far, poly(acrylic acid-acrylamide) copolymers [33], poly(acrylic acid) [12,31,[34][35][36][37][38][39] and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) [40] have been used, among others, for this purpose.…”