Fabrication of a High-Performance Fertilizer To Control the Loss of Water and Nutrient Using Micro/Nano Networks

Nitrogen fertilizer tends to migrate into the environment through runoff, leaching and volatilization, causing severe environmental pollution. In this work, a high-performance water and nutrient loss control fertilizer (WNLCF) was developed by adding a high-energy electron beam (HEEB) dispersed attapulgite (HA)–sodium polyacrylate (P)–polyacrylamide (M) complex to traditional fertilizer. Therein, HA-P-M was used as the water and nutrient loss control agent (WNLCA), which could self-assemble to form three-dimensional (3D) micro/nano networks in aqueous phase. Thus, water and nutrient could be effectively combined and held in the networks which could be then retained in the soil via the filtering effect of soil, resulting in low loss of water and nutrient. Pot experiments of 15N labeled fertilizer indicated that WNLCF could effectively improve the amounts of fertilizer nutrients in the stem of corn and facilitate the growth of corn. Therefore, this work provides a promising approach to enhance the utilization efficiency of water and nutrient, and lower the pollution risk of fertilizer.