Tobacco Waste Liquid-Based Organic Fertilizer Particle for Controlled-Release Fulvic Acid and Immobilization of Heavy Metals in Soil

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Jun 15;12(12):2056. doi: 10.3390/nano12122056.

Abstract

Every year, a large amount of tobacco waste liquid (TWL) is discharged into the environment, resulting in serious pollution for the environment. In this work, a TWL-based particle (OACT) was fabricated by CaO, attapulgite (ATP), and TWL, and, then, OACT was coated by amino silicon oil (ASO) to form OACT@ASO. Therein, OACT@ASO had high controlled-release ability for fulvic acid (FA), because of the nanonetworks structure for ATP and the high content of FA in TWL. The release ratio (RR) of FA from OACT@ASO reached 94% at 75 h in deionized water, and 23% at 32 d in silica sand. Furthermore, the release mechanism of FA from OACT@ASO was consistent with the First-order law. Additionally, OACT@ASO also possessed high immobilization capacity for Cu(II), Cd(II), and Pb(II) (CCP) in soil. Notably, a pot experiment indicated that OACT@ASO could facilitate the growth of pakchoi seedlings and decrease the absorption of CCP by pakchoi seedlings. Thus, this study provides a new kind of organic fertilizer which could not only release FA, but also immobilize CCP in soil.

Keywords: CaO; attapulgite; fulvic acid; immobilization; tobacco waste liquid.