In a paper published in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Prof. WU Zhengyan and the his research team at the Institute of Technical Biology and Agriculture Engineering, Hefei institutes of physical science, Chinese Academy of Sciences reported their success of developing a nanocomposite to immobilize As and Cu ions in organic fertilizer.

Heavy metal ions such as arsenic (As) and copper (Cu) ions and so on have been widely used as additives for feed to increase feed intake and promote the growth of livestock. As such, the manure-based organic fertilizer contains a certain amount of heavy metal ions, resulting in a high risk to environment and human beings damage.

Therefore, it is rather important to immobilize the heavy metal ions in organic fertilizer to lower the harmful effects.

To aim the problem, WU's team using anhydrous sodium carbonate (Na₂CO₃), straw ash-based biochar and biosilica (BioSi), and attapulgite (Attp) to synthesize a nanocomposite. Na₂CO₃, BioSi, and Attp powders were mixed evenly with weight ratio of WNa₂CO₃:WBioSi:WAttp =3:1:2.

The nanocomposite possesses such a porous nano-networks structure and abundant active groups that could efficiently immobilize As and Cu ions in organic fertilizer.

Besides, the nanocomposite could promote the growth of rices and at same time significantly decrease the uptake of As and Cu ions by rices. It could effectively reduce the negative effect of the heavy metal ions in organic fertilizer on environment and human beings and might see a huge application prospect.

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Key Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Science and Technology Service Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Key Program of Anhui province.

Link to the paper: Immobilizing arsenic and copper ions in manure using a nanocomposite

Schematic illustration of mechanism. (Image by WANG Dongfang)

Contact:

WU Zhengyan

Institute of Technical Biology and Agriculture Engineering (http://english.itb.cas.cn/)

Hefei, Anhui 230031, P. R. China.

Email: zywu@ipp.ac.cn