Synthesis and characterization of agarose-bacterial cellulose hydrogel for promoting seed germination by improving soil water retention.

The shortage of water resources is a crisis for human ecosystems. Compared with other ecosystems, the impact on agricultural ecosystems is more prominent. In order to alleviate this situation, a new type of agricultural hydrogel, agarose-bacterial cellulose hydrogel, was synthesized by replacing the traditional petroleum-based monomer with natural polysaccharide. Bacterial cellulose was used as raw material for the synthesis of hydrogels using agarose as matrix template and N, N'- methylenebisacrylamide as cross-linkers. In the present study, the hydrogel has optimized the ratio of the three synthesized polymers and characterized this hydrogel using FTIR spectra, XRD, and SEM. The findings demonstrated that bacterial cellulose was adequately incorporated into the agarose hydrogel and that the pores of AB1 were more significant than those of AA and AB2, which provided crucial support for the hydrogel's ability to encourage plant development. By mixing hydrogel with soil, the effects of soil which have composite hydrogel and without composite hydrogel on plant germination and growth were studied. The results showed that adding bacterial cellulose increased the water retention and holding capacity of agarose hydrogel. Moreover, the plant germination rate and growing trend in soil with hydrogel were better than those without hydrogel. This low-cost, quickly made hydrogel has great application potential in agricultural soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]