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Urea tends to be hydrolyzed by urease and then migrate into the environment, which results in a low utilization efficiency and severe environmental contamination. To solve this problem, a network-structured nanocomposite (sodium humate-attapulgite-polyacrylamide) was fabricated and used as an excellent fertilizer synergist (FS) that could effectively inhibit the hydrolysis, reduce the loss, and enhance the utilization efficiency of nitrogen. Additionally, the FS exerted significant positive effects on the expression of several nitrogen-uptake-related genes, ion flux in maize roots, the growth of crops, and the organic matter in soil. The FS could modify the microbial community in the soil and increase the number of bacteria involved in nitrogen metabolism, organic matter degradation, the iron cycle, and photosynthesis. Importantly, this technology displayed a high biosafety and has a great potential to reduce nonpoint agricultural pollution. Therefore, this work provides a promising approach to manage nitrogen and to promote the sustainable development of agriculture and the environment.

Nitrogen fertilizer tends to migrate into the environment through runoff, leaching and volatilization, causing severe environmental pollution. In this work, a high-performance water and nutrient loss control fertilizer (WNLCF) was developed by adding a high-energy electron beam (HEEB) dispersed attapulgite (HA)–sodium polyacrylate (P)–polyacrylamide (M) complex to traditional fertilizer. Therein, HA-P-M was used as the water and nutrient loss control agent (WNLCA), which could self-assemble to form three-dimensional (3D) micro/nano networks in aqueous phase. Thus, water and nutrient could be effectively combined and held in the networks which could be then retained in the soil via the filtering effect of soil, resulting in low loss of water and nutrient. Pot experiments of 15N labeled fertilizer indicated that WNLCF could effectively improve the amounts of fertilizer nutrients in the stem of corn and facilitate the growth of corn. Therefore, this work provides a promising approach to enhance the utilizati...

Foliar nitrogen fertilizer (FNF) unabsorbed by crops leaves eventually discharges into environment through rainwater washing, leaching and volatilization, causing severe pollution to water, soil and air. Therefore, improving the adhesion capacity of FNF is sorely needed. This work developed a loss-control foliar nitrogen fertilizer (LCFNF) by adding a complex, as a loss control agent (LCA), including attapulgite (ATP) irradiated by high-energy electron beam (HEEB), and straw ash-based biochar and biosilica (BCS) to traditional FNF. LCA possesses a porous micro/nano networks structure and thus could bind a large amount of nitrogen to form fertilizer-ATP-BCS system, which could be then retained by the rough surface of crop leaves. As a result, LCFNF displayed higher adhesion performance on crop leaves, lower loss amount and thus higher utilization efficiency compared with FNF. This work provides a novel and promising approach to control the loss of traditional FNF and ultimately lower the environment pollut...

A facile approach to remediate the microenvironment of saline–alkali soil (SS) was developed using a novel fertilizer named saline–alkali soil remediating fertilizer (SSRF). SSRF was obtained by adding a nanocomposite as the saline–alkali soil remediating agent (SSRA) made up of attapulgite (ATP), phosphogypsum (PG), sodium polyacrylate (SP), and weathered coal (WC) to a traditional fertilizer (TF). SSRF could form micro/nanonetworks in SS and display a high retaining capacity on water and fertilizer nutrients because of the hydrogen bonds between SSRA and water molecules, urea, or NH4Cl. In addition, SSRF could effectively reduce the salinity and alkalinity in SS through ion exchange, deactivation, and pH adjusting. Thus, SSRF could significantly improve the microenvironment of SS, which could facilitate the growth of crops and increase the saline–alkaline tolerance of crops.