Jaramillo-Quiceno Natalia, Álvarez-López Catalina, Hincapié-Llanos Gustavo Adolfo, Hincapié Carlos A, Osorio Marisol
Grupo de Investigación Sobre Nuevos Materiales, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín 050031, Colombia.
Grupo de Investigaciones Agroindustriales (GRAIN), Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín 050031, Colombia.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Jun 21;15(13):2763. doi: 10.3390/polym15132763.
Hydrogel-type absorbent materials are currently a technological alternative for improving water retention in the soil and reducing nutrient loss by leaching and evaporation. This study aimed to evaluate the application of a new hydrogel based on silk sericin (SS) as a water retention material in soil. The morphology of the hydrogel was characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and its impact on moisture retention in sandy loam soil (SLS) under different levels of matric pressure (MP) was evaluated. Additionally, water content data were collected over time for both SLS and SLS with hydrogel (SLS + H), and the data were used to fit predictive models. The results indicate that the hydrogel had a porous morphology that promoted water retention and soil release. Under a MP of 0.3 bar, the use of the hydrogel increased water retention by 44.70% with respect to that of SLS. The predictive models developed were adequately adjusted to the behavior of the moisture data over time and evidenced the incidence of the absorbent material on the dynamics of the moisture content in the soil. Therefore, these models could be useful for facilitating subsequent simulations or for designing automatic soil moisture control systems oriented to smart farming.
水凝胶型吸水材料目前是一种技术替代方案，可用于提高土壤保水性，并减少因淋溶和蒸发造成的养分流失。本研究旨在评估一种基于丝胶蛋白（SS）的新型水凝胶作为土壤保水材料的应用。使用扫描电子显微镜（SEM）对水凝胶的形态进行了表征，并评估了其在不同基质压力（MP）水平下对砂壤土（SLS）保水能力的影响。此外，还随时间收集了SLS和添加水凝胶的SLS（SLS + H）的含水量数据，并将这些数据用于拟合预测模型。结果表明，该水凝胶具有多孔形态，有利于保水和土壤释放。在0.3巴的基质压力下，与SLS相比，使用水凝胶可使保水量提高44.70%。所建立的预测模型能够很好地拟合含水量随时间的变化情况，并证明了吸水材料对土壤水分动态的影响。因此，这些模型可能有助于后续的模拟，或用于设计面向智慧农业的自动土壤湿度控制系统。
