The Potential Of Epoxidized Natural Rubber As Hydrophobic Contributor In Biodegrdable Urea Fertilizer

Nor Abidah, Abdul Aziz (2013) The Potential Of Epoxidized Natural Rubber As Hydrophobic Contributor In Biodegrdable Urea Fertilizer. Project Report. UTeM, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate the potential of ENR in preparation of chitosan based urea fertilizer. In this research, mixture of chitosan and epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) was used as binder to take advantage of their biodegradable and hydrophobic characteristics, respectively. The effect of mixing formulation to the properties of fertilizer was studied in detail. Firstly, the chitosan and ENR was diluted in toluene with the presence of bentonite as filler. After gelatinization, the urea powder was mixed and stirred until homogenous for 20 minutes. Then, the gelatin was poured into a petri dish and left to dry in an oven at 60°C overnight. Then, it is put in a mold and compressed using a hydraulic presser to obtain the desired size and shape. After processing, the physical and mechanical properties of the fertilizer was determined through density measurement, biodegradability test, water absorption test, water retention test, hardness test and compression test. Finally, the fertilizer was analyzed for thermal, chemical and morphological properties by using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). At the end of this research, it has been found the incorporation of ENR in biodegradable chitosan based urea fertilizer has imparted the properties biodegradable properties to the ENR/chitosan based urea fertilizer. A mixture of 10pph ENR in chitosan based urea fertilizer produced biodegradable urea fertilizer with density low density of 1.23g/cm3 where as water absorption and water retention was -7.73 % and 95.9% respectively. The compressivestrength and hardness of this sample werethe lowestwith only 0.559 MPa and 39.53 Shore D, respectively. Finally, with the presence of ENR slower biodegradability level of urea fertilizer was produced. It ispredictedto improve the performance of nitrogen release to surrounding for future slow release fertilizer.

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