Designing a novel type of multifunctional soil conditioner based on 4-arm star-shaped polymer modified mesoporous MCM-41

A novel type of multifunctional soil conditioner was designed based on 4-arm star-shaped polymer modified mesoporous MCM-41 and was used as a carrier for urea and scavenger for noxious chemicals. The 4-arm star shaped polymer was linked to the MCM-41 through a silane coupling agent. FTIR, NMR, XRD, BET, SEM, and TEM were adopted to analyze the structure characteristics of the samples, verifying that mesoporous MCM-41 and the 4-arm star-shaped polymer were successfully prepared. The experimental results demonstrated that the urea release effect of modified MCM-41 was significantly improved by nearly 50% compared to raw MCM-41. The loading efficiency (LE) and encapsulation efficiency (EE) were increased by nearly 39% and 42%, respectively, with the crop growth effectively promoted by 20-25%. The 4-arm star-shaped polymer modified mesoporous MCM-41 also possessed preferable adsorption properties for the methylene blue. Furthermore, the modified MCM-41 presented no biological toxicity and good biocompatibility because of the special structure. Consequently, the multifunctional soil conditioner provides potential application value for the improvement of the soil environment and the promotion of crop growth in agricultural applications.

Automated summary

A novel type of multifunctional soil conditioner based on 4-arm star-shaped polymer modified mesoporous MCM-41 was designed and used as a carrier for urea and a scavenger for noxious chemicals. The experimental results showed that the modified MCM-41 significantly improved urea release effect and promoted crop growth, while exhibiting good adsorption properties for methylene blue. Moreover, the modified MCM-41 showed no biological toxicity and had good biocompatibility, making it potentially valuable for improving soil environment and promoting crop growth in agricultural applications.