Mr
Achraf BERRADI
(1 Laboratory of Water, Biodiversity, and Climate Change, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, B.P. 2390, 40000, Marrakesh, Morocco. 2 National Center for Research and Studies on Water and Energy (CNEREE), Cadi Ayyad University, B. 511, 40000, Marrakech, Morocco.)
The agricultural sector stands as one of the most rapidly expanding industries, driven by the escalating global demand for food and textiles to meet the needs of a growing world population. However, the use of water resources has become increasingly critical, especially in arid regions, as water scarcity contributes to soil degradation, desertification, and salinization due to the dryness of soils especially in arid and desert regions, in addition to the fact that plants and soils have low water retention capacity which results in the use of vast amounts of water during irrigation. All this reduces soil water availability and productivity, crop growth, and water wastage.
The objective of this study is to prepare hydrogels based on both commercial and bio-sourced polysaccharides extracted by valorizing waste materials such as those from the olive industry. These biobased hydrogels display significant advantages, including non-toxicity, ready availability, low production cost, biocompatibility, and biodegradability, with a huge water retention and absorption capacity without dissolution. In addition, it could be useful for wastewater treatment via an adsorption process or as a nutrient reservoir for slow-release fertilizer systems in agricultural uses. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) Fourier Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) confirms these materials' synthesis before studying their morphological, thermal, mechanical, and swelling properties.
KEYWORDS
Agriculture; Biobased; Polysaccharide; Hydrogel; Irrigation; Retention.
Mr
Achraf BERRADI
(1 Laboratory of Water, Biodiversity, and Climate Change, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, B.P. 2390, 40000, Marrakesh, Morocco. 2 National Center for Research and Studies on Water and Energy (CNEREE), Cadi Ayyad University, B. 511, 40000, Marrakech, Morocco.)
Ms
Ahlam Lafdali
(1 Laboratory of Water, Biodiversity, and Climate Change, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, B.P. 2390, 40000, Marrakesh, Morocco. 2 National Center for Research and Studies on Water and Energy (CNEREE), Cadi Ayyad University, B. 511, 40000, Marrakech, Morocco. 3 Laboratory of Innovative Materials, Energy and sustainable Development (IMED-Lab), Faculty of Science and Technology, Cadi Ayyad University, B.P. 112, 40000, Marrakesh, Morocco.)
Mr
Faissal AZIZ
(1 Laboratory of Water, Biodiversity, and Climate Change, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, B.P. 2390, 40000, Marrakesh, Morocco. 2 National Center for Research and Studies on Water and Energy (CNEREE), Cadi Ayyad University, B. 511, 40000, Marrakech, Morocco.)
Ms
Laila MANDI
(1 Laboratory of Water, Biodiversity, and Climate Change, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, B.P. 2390, 40000, Marrakesh, Morocco. 2 National Center for Research and Studies on Water and Energy (CNEREE), Cadi Ayyad University, B. 511, 40000, Marrakech, Morocco.)
