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Swelling Behaviour of Superabsorbent Polymers for Soil Amendment under Different Loads

One of the most important among the numerous applications of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs), also known as hydrogels, is soil improvement and supporting plant vegetation in agriculture and environmental engineering. Currently, when water scarcity involves water stress, they are becoming still more c...

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Autores principales: Lejcuś, Krzysztof, Śpitalniak, Michał, Dąbrowska, Jolanta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6414986/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30966306
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10030271
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author Lejcuś, Krzysztof
Śpitalniak, Michał
Dąbrowska, Jolanta
author_facet Lejcuś, Krzysztof
Śpitalniak, Michał
Dąbrowska, Jolanta
author_sort Lejcuś, Krzysztof
collection PubMed
description One of the most important among the numerous applications of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs), also known as hydrogels, is soil improvement and supporting plant vegetation in agriculture and environmental engineering. Currently, when water scarcity involves water stress, they are becoming still more commonly used for water retention in soil. As it turns out, one of the major factors influencing the superabsorbent polymers water retention capacity (WRC) is the load of soil. The study presents test results of absorbency under load (AUL) of SAPs. The object of the analysis was cross-linked copolymer of acrylamide and potassium acrylate, of a granulation of 0.50–3.15 mm. The authors analysed the water absorption capacity of the superabsorbent polymers under loads characteristic for 3 different densities of soil (1.3 g∙cm(−3), 0.9 g∙cm(−3), 0.5 g∙cm(−3)) and three different depths of application (10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm). Soil load and bulk densities were simulated by using weights. The experiments were conducted with a Mecmesin Multitest 2.5-xt apparatus. The obtained results demonstrate a very significant reduction in water absorption capacity by SAP under load. For a 30 cm deep layer of soil of bulk density of 1.3 g∙cm(−3), after 1 h, this value amounted to 5.0 g∙g(−1), and for the control sample without load, this value amounted to more than 200 g∙g(−1). For the lowest load in the experiment, which was 0.49 kPa (10 cm deep layer of soil of a bulk density of 0.5 g∙cm(−3)), this value was 33.0 g∙g(−1) after 60 min. Loads do not only limit the volume of the swelling superabsorbent polymer but they also prolong the swelling time. The soil load caused a decrease in the absorption capacity from 338.5 g∙g(−1) to 19.3 g∙g(−1), as well as a prolongation of the swelling time. The rate parameter (time required to reach 63% of maximum absorption capacity) increased from 63 min for the control sample to more than 300 min for the largest analysed load of 3.83 kPa. The implications of soil load on superabsorbent polymer swelling are crucial for its usage and thus for the soil system. This knowledge might be employed for the more effective usage of superabsorbent polymers in agriculture and environmental engineering, in which they are commonly used to retain water and to support plant growth.
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spelling pubmed-64149862019-04-02 Swelling Behaviour of Superabsorbent Polymers for Soil Amendment under Different Loads Lejcuś, Krzysztof Śpitalniak, Michał Dąbrowska, Jolanta Polymers (Basel) Article One of the most important among the numerous applications of superabsorbent polymers (SAPs), also known as hydrogels, is soil improvement and supporting plant vegetation in agriculture and environmental engineering. Currently, when water scarcity involves water stress, they are becoming still more commonly used for water retention in soil. As it turns out, one of the major factors influencing the superabsorbent polymers water retention capacity (WRC) is the load of soil. The study presents test results of absorbency under load (AUL) of SAPs. The object of the analysis was cross-linked copolymer of acrylamide and potassium acrylate, of a granulation of 0.50–3.15 mm. The authors analysed the water absorption capacity of the superabsorbent polymers under loads characteristic for 3 different densities of soil (1.3 g∙cm(−3), 0.9 g∙cm(−3), 0.5 g∙cm(−3)) and three different depths of application (10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm). Soil load and bulk densities were simulated by using weights. The experiments were conducted with a Mecmesin Multitest 2.5-xt apparatus. The obtained results demonstrate a very significant reduction in water absorption capacity by SAP under load. For a 30 cm deep layer of soil of bulk density of 1.3 g∙cm(−3), after 1 h, this value amounted to 5.0 g∙g(−1), and for the control sample without load, this value amounted to more than 200 g∙g(−1). For the lowest load in the experiment, which was 0.49 kPa (10 cm deep layer of soil of a bulk density of 0.5 g∙cm(−3)), this value was 33.0 g∙g(−1) after 60 min. Loads do not only limit the volume of the swelling superabsorbent polymer but they also prolong the swelling time. The soil load caused a decrease in the absorption capacity from 338.5 g∙g(−1) to 19.3 g∙g(−1), as well as a prolongation of the swelling time. The rate parameter (time required to reach 63% of maximum absorption capacity) increased from 63 min for the control sample to more than 300 min for the largest analysed load of 3.83 kPa. The implications of soil load on superabsorbent polymer swelling are crucial for its usage and thus for the soil system. This knowledge might be employed for the more effective usage of superabsorbent polymers in agriculture and environmental engineering, in which they are commonly used to retain water and to support plant growth. MDPI 2018-03-06 /pmc/articles/PMC6414986/ /pubmed/30966306 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10030271 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lejcuś, Krzysztof
Śpitalniak, Michał
Dąbrowska, Jolanta
Swelling Behaviour of Superabsorbent Polymers for Soil Amendment under Different Loads
title Swelling Behaviour of Superabsorbent Polymers for Soil Amendment under Different Loads
title_full Swelling Behaviour of Superabsorbent Polymers for Soil Amendment under Different Loads
title_fullStr Swelling Behaviour of Superabsorbent Polymers for Soil Amendment under Different Loads
title_full_unstemmed Swelling Behaviour of Superabsorbent Polymers for Soil Amendment under Different Loads
title_short Swelling Behaviour of Superabsorbent Polymers for Soil Amendment under Different Loads
title_sort swelling behaviour of superabsorbent polymers for soil amendment under different loads
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6414986/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30966306
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym10030271
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