Preparation, characterization and agricultural utilization of urea-loaded chitosan nanoparticles
2017
Lapoot, L.M.
Urea-loaded chitosan nanoparticles were prepared by copolymerization of methacrylic acid with chitosan followed by the incorporation of urea into the nanoparticles. The shape of the nanoparticles is spherical as shown by the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image. Particle size analysis revealed that the sizes of nanoparticles can change from 73.3 nm to 126 nm depending on the amount of chitosan used in the synthesis. The formation of the nanoparticles improved the stability of chitosan as shown by the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) result. The loading efficiency of urea in the nanoparticles is 96.8+- 0.4%. The presence of urea resulted to an increase in size of the nanoparticles, presence of additional peaks in the FT-IR spectra of the CS-PMAA nanoparticles and an increase in the presence in the atomic concentration of nitrogen by 166% as revealed by the SEM-EDX result. The urea-loaded chitosan nanoparticle was tested as a foliar fertilizer for pechay (Brassica rapa cultivar Pavito) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa cultivar Estrosa). Analysis of variance for the growth parameters measured revealed that although foliar treatments of urea-loaded chitosan nanoparticle gave means higher compared to treatments containing commercial urea and the control, the difference were found to be not significant. Analysis of variance of the total nitrogen content also showed no significant among treatments.
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