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Water retention properties of a sandy soil with superabsorbent polymers as affected by aging and water quality
Author(s) -
Banedjschafie Schahram,
Durner Wolfgang
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of plant nutrition and soil science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1522-2624
pISSN - 1436-8730
DOI - 10.1002/jpln.201500128
Subject(s) - soil water , water retention , superabsorbent polymer , wetting , polymer , limiting , field capacity , absorption of water , chemistry , arid , chemical engineering , materials science , environmental science , soil science , geology , composite material , organic chemistry , mechanical engineering , engineering , paleontology
Hydraulic properties, specifically the water holding capacity of soils, play a key role in the ability of soils to sustain plant growth. Additions of hydrophilic polymers (superabsorbents) can improve the water holding capacity of sandy soils. This has led to practical applications of these materials particularly in arid regions and countries, where water is the limiting factor for plant production. The objectives of this study are to investigate how effective hydraulic properties of polymer‐soil mixtures are affected by addition of absorbents in different concentrations. Novel aspects are the investigation of aging under repeated wetting–drying‐cycles over an appreciable time in the field and a systematic investigation of the salt influence on the water uptake of polymers. We added the polymer Super AB, A‐200 (Iran Polymer Institute), to dune sand in ratios of 0.3%, 0.6%, and 1% w/w. We found that the effective water retention characteristics of the soil–absorbent mixtures were improved with respect to plant‐available water compared to the pure sand, and the improvement was related to the respective amount of absorbent in the mixture. The plant available water content (PAW) increased from 0.005 for the untreated sand to 0.06, 0.20, and 0.28 g g −1 , respectively, for the sand with the three polymer additions. Due to aging of the polymers, PAW decreased after 6 months of cyclic drying and wetting to about half of the value immediately after the initial treatment. We attribute this to the effect of salts. This is corroborated by the results from water uptake experiments by the pure polymers. Repeated cycles of water uptake showed that salts in the water greatly reduced the uptake capacity of the polymers after few cycles. The effect was strong for bivalent cations and less pronounced for monovalent cations.