One of the ways of overcoming the cost of irrigation is through in-situ water harvesting at the plant roots. Super absorbent polymer (SAP) can facilitate water harvesting at the plant roots. This study attempted to as...One of the ways of overcoming the cost of irrigation is through in-situ water harvesting at the plant roots. Super absorbent polymer (SAP) can facilitate water harvesting at the plant roots. This study attempted to assess the effect of SAP on plant available water (PAW) of different soils. In this study, SAP was sequentially added at the rate of 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.5% of the soil weight and its impact assessed in clay, sandy clay and sandy loam soils. The moisture retention characteristics of the original and SAP treated soils were studied using soil water retention curves (SWRC) and results modelled using Gardner model. PAW was estimated from SWRC as the difference between moisture content at 1.5 and 3 bar in all soils. The difference in PAW between original and treated soils was assessed at 5% level of significance. The WRC of all the samples was adequately found to be described by the Gardner model (Coefficient of determination R<sup>2</sup> ≥ 98% and residual standard error (RSE) ≤ 0.04). SWRC changed with increase in SAP percentage in clay, sandy clay and sandy loam soils. Clay had a higher change in water retention then sandy clay and lastly sandy loam. Plant available water content (PAW) in all soils increased. In clay soil it increased with increase in SAP from 0.3291 at zero SAP to 0.6223 at 0.5% SAP. Sandy clay soil increased in PAW from 0.2721 at zero SAP to 0.5335 at 0.5% SAP and Sandy loam soils from 0.1691 at zero SAP to 0.3461 at 0.5% SAP. Hence, from the study SAP can be used to conserve irrigation water in the plant roots and therefore reducing the cost since PAW has been increased.展开更多
Due to large volume and high hardness of thermal insulation materials mostly used in high temperature fields, a composite cooling powder and its thixotropic hydrogel for thermal protection are presented. The core of c...Due to large volume and high hardness of thermal insulation materials mostly used in high temperature fields, a composite cooling powder and its thixotropic hydrogel for thermal protection are presented. The core of composite cooling material powder is super absorbent polymer, composing with metal salt, polysaccharide hydrosol and inorganic particles and other modifiers through a series of composite process, which can be easily stored for a long time. When needed, the powder can be mixed with water to obtain a kind of thixotropic hydrogel in a very short time. Experimental results show this thermal protection technology with thixotropic ability has excellent thermal protection performance, meanwhile flexible, adhesive and low cost, which exerts instantaneous cooling, efficient thermal protection and long-lasting flame-retardant protection.展开更多
文摘One of the ways of overcoming the cost of irrigation is through in-situ water harvesting at the plant roots. Super absorbent polymer (SAP) can facilitate water harvesting at the plant roots. This study attempted to assess the effect of SAP on plant available water (PAW) of different soils. In this study, SAP was sequentially added at the rate of 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.5% of the soil weight and its impact assessed in clay, sandy clay and sandy loam soils. The moisture retention characteristics of the original and SAP treated soils were studied using soil water retention curves (SWRC) and results modelled using Gardner model. PAW was estimated from SWRC as the difference between moisture content at 1.5 and 3 bar in all soils. The difference in PAW between original and treated soils was assessed at 5% level of significance. The WRC of all the samples was adequately found to be described by the Gardner model (Coefficient of determination R<sup>2</sup> ≥ 98% and residual standard error (RSE) ≤ 0.04). SWRC changed with increase in SAP percentage in clay, sandy clay and sandy loam soils. Clay had a higher change in water retention then sandy clay and lastly sandy loam. Plant available water content (PAW) in all soils increased. In clay soil it increased with increase in SAP from 0.3291 at zero SAP to 0.6223 at 0.5% SAP. Sandy clay soil increased in PAW from 0.2721 at zero SAP to 0.5335 at 0.5% SAP and Sandy loam soils from 0.1691 at zero SAP to 0.3461 at 0.5% SAP. Hence, from the study SAP can be used to conserve irrigation water in the plant roots and therefore reducing the cost since PAW has been increased.
文摘Due to large volume and high hardness of thermal insulation materials mostly used in high temperature fields, a composite cooling powder and its thixotropic hydrogel for thermal protection are presented. The core of composite cooling material powder is super absorbent polymer, composing with metal salt, polysaccharide hydrosol and inorganic particles and other modifiers through a series of composite process, which can be easily stored for a long time. When needed, the powder can be mixed with water to obtain a kind of thixotropic hydrogel in a very short time. Experimental results show this thermal protection technology with thixotropic ability has excellent thermal protection performance, meanwhile flexible, adhesive and low cost, which exerts instantaneous cooling, efficient thermal protection and long-lasting flame-retardant protection.
