Study of novel biodegradable carrier vehicles of fertilizers and agricultural defensives based on hydrogel and nanostructure silicates as an alternative in the combat of environmental impacts

Abstract

The use of agrochemicals in the agriculture is extremely exaggerated and its indiscriminate application provokes serious environmental problems, such as: contaminations of water, environment and humans. Another problem created in financial scenery is to increase in the agricultural production cost. With increasing demand of researches related to development and improvement of novel material properties, the development of the hydrogels for application in the controlled release has been receiving more attention from researchers. On the other hand, hydrogels can be defined as three-dimensional structured polymeric materials that are capable of absorb a large quantity of water without disintegrating. Thus, the main objective this project is related to the synthesis and characterization of biodegradable matrices based on hydrogel and silicates (clay and zeolite) with satisfactory properties to be applied as carrier vehicle in the sustained and controlled release of fertilizers and pesticides. As long time goal, is planning the creation of a reference laboratory in the sustained and controlled release systems at Sao Paulo State. (AU)