Artificial soil based on “smart” hydrogels

Purpose. For the cultivation of ornamental crops under controlled conditions in order to obtain environmentally friendly plant products, as well as to regulate the water-physical properties of natural soils.

Application area. Agriculture.

Advantages. Compared with known analogues, it has a number of advantages, in particular: biocompatibility with plant sprouts; high water-retaining and instantaneous absorption capacity (up to 1000%/min); unique sorption capacity in relation to substances of various nature (up to 99% of the initial amount); prolonged and controlled release of incorporated bioelements; monodispersity, thermal stability, optimal rheological parameters; increased yield and productivity (up to 30%); the possibility of obtaining materials of different consistency states and shapes, including in the form of plates (from 10 mm to 20 cm long and 0.5 to 5 mm thick), granules of different diameters (0.5–2.5 mm) or ointment-like amorphous masses.

Description. Artificial soil is a hydrogel substrate with immobilized bioelements based on spatially cross-linked highly dispersed copolymer hydrogels with a branched pore system, consisting of monomers of various chemical nature: hydrophilic (acrylamide), hydrophobic (acrylonitrile), ionic (N) -methylene-bis-acrylamide).

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