Laboratory for Advanced Carbon Nanomaterials, Chemical Institute, Kazan Federal University, Kremlevskaya St. 18, Kazan 420008, Russian Federation.
Laboratory "Materials for Green Energy and Sustainability", Kazan Federal University, Kremlevskaya St. 18, Kazan 420008, Russian Federation.
J Agric Food Chem. 2023 Oct 18;71(41):14979-14988. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.3c03500. Epub 2023 Oct 4.
Serious concerns about the negative impact of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) on the environment resulted in severe restrictions imposed on this compound in many countries. One of the main concerns is related to the use of EDTA in agriculture as a chelator in microelement fertilizers: being introduced directly into the sawing fields, it penetrates into groundwater, with no chance to be captured/recycled. Respectively, there is an active search for environmentally friendly, biodegradable alternatives for this chelator. In this study, we proposed a biodegradable chelating agent, 2-((1,2-dicarboxyethyl)amino)pentanedioic acid (IGSA). It was synthesized in accordance with the principles of "green chemistry" from readily available nonhazardous precursors using water as a solvent; in addition, the method yields literally no waste. The synthesized chelator in the form of the crude reaction mixture was further used for preparing a multicomponent micronutrient fertilizer (B, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, and Mo). The fertilizer was shown to be highly biodegradable (72% in 28 days), while the EDTA-based product degraded only by 13%. The plant growing efficiency was tested on lettuce in the greenhouse experiments. The results were compared against the known commercial fertilizers based on EDTA and iminodisuccinic acid (IDS). The newly developed IGSA-based fertilizer significantly outperformed the EDTA-based fertilizer in lettuce biomass (1.4 and 1.6 times for root and foliar application, respectively). The total mineral uptake was almost two times higher (1.9 and 1.8 times for root and foliar treatments, respectively) compared to the EDTA-based complex and even slightly higher (1.2 and 1.1 times, respectively) compared to the IDS-based complex. Our work opens the doors for the industrial scale production and application of this fully "green", inexpensive microelement fertilizer that has the potential to replace the EDTA-based products.
由于对乙二胺四乙酸（EDTA）对环境的负面影响的严重担忧，许多国家对该化合物的使用进行了严格限制。其中一个主要的担忧是 EDTA 在农业中作为微量元素肥料螯合剂的使用：它被直接引入锯木场，渗透到地下水中，没有机会被捕获/回收。因此，人们正在积极寻找这种螯合剂的环保、可生物降解的替代品。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种可生物降解的螯合剂，2-((1,2-二羧乙基)氨基)戊二酸（IGSA）。它是根据“绿色化学”的原则，使用水作为溶剂，从易得的非危险前体制成的；此外，该方法几乎没有产生废物。粗反应混合物形式的合成螯合剂进一步用于制备多组分微量元素肥料（B、Zn、Fe、Cu、Mn 和 Mo）。该肥料具有很高的生物降解性（28 天内降解 72%），而基于 EDTA 的产品仅降解 13%。在温室实验中，使用生菜测试了植物生长效率。结果与基于 EDTA 和亚氨基二琥珀酸（IDS）的已知商业肥料进行了比较。在生菜生物量方面，新开发的基于 IGSA 的肥料表现明显优于基于 EDTA 的肥料（根部和叶部处理分别提高 1.4 和 1.6 倍）。与基于 EDTA 的络合物相比，总矿物质吸收量几乎高出两倍（根部和叶部处理分别为 1.9 和 1.8 倍），甚至略高于基于 IDS 的络合物（分别为 1.2 和 1.1 倍）。我们的工作为这种完全“绿色”、廉价的微量元素肥料的工业规模生产和应用开辟了道路，该肥料有可能替代基于 EDTA 的产品。
