Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, Federal University of Ceará-UFC, Pici Campus, CP 60455-760 Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte-UFRN, CP 59078-900 Natal, RN, Brazil.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2022 Sep 1;216:24-31. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2022.06.179. Epub 2022 Jun 30.
Core-shell (CS) hydrogels show great potential for the controlled release of fertilizers. In this work, we prepared an alginate-coated gelatin-cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) hydrogel by a simple layer-by-layer process. CNCs were prepared from cotton linter fibers by the sulfuric acid process. They were incorporated into the gelatin hydrogel, and an external alginate membrane was applied to the inner membrane. Compared to neat gelatin hydrogel, the compressive modulus of the nanocomposite with 5.0 wt% CNCs was enhanced by 288 %. In addition, the CS hydrogel showed a slow-release property and better water retention capacity than neat gelatin hydrogel. The main results of this work are listed below: compression test revealed that the addition of the CNC increases the mechanical properties of the hydrogel, and ii) the addition of a second layer of alginate to CNC-reinforced gelatin hydrogel increase the water retention and improve the sustained release of fertilizer. Our study provides easy and green routes to produce CS hydrogels for potential agricultural applications.
核壳（CS）水凝胶在控制肥料释放方面具有巨大的潜力。在这项工作中，我们通过简单的层层工艺制备了一种由海藻酸钠包裹明胶-纤维素纳米晶体（CNC）的水凝胶。CNC 是通过硫酸法从棉绒纤维中制备的，它们被掺入明胶水凝胶中，并在内部膜上施加一层外部海藻酸钠膜。与纯明胶水凝胶相比，含有 5.0wt% CNC 的纳米复合材料的压缩模量提高了 288%。此外，CS 水凝胶比纯明胶水凝胶具有缓慢释放性能和更好的保水能力。这项工作的主要结果如下：压缩试验表明，添加 CNC 可提高水凝胶的机械性能，以及 ii）向 CNC 增强明胶水凝胶添加第二层海藻酸钠可提高保水能力并改善肥料的持续释放。我们的研究为潜在的农业应用提供了生产 CS 水凝胶的简单绿色途径。
