Abstract
Background and aims
Interactions between soil constituents define soil microstructural stability and are enhanced by swellable organic substances (hydrogels) such as extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), root mucilage or synthetic polymers. This study aims to identify the still largely unknown mechanisms behind hydrogel-induced soil microstructural stability. We hypothesized that soil microstructural stability increased with increasing limitation of hydrogel swelling between soil particles.
Methods
One- and two-dimensional 1H proton nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry (1H–NMR relaxometry) measurements were performed with untreated and polyacrylic-acid (PAA) treated artificial soils at various clay content and PAA concentrations. The results on the water distribution and water mobility in the artificial soils were related to their microstructural stability as measured by rheology.
Results
PAA treatment significantly increased soil microstructural stability up to five times, especially at high clay content. Soil microstructural stability increased with decreasing rotational mobility of water in the PAA-treated artificial. At the two highest PAA concentrations, the microstructural stability was the highest, although the mobility of water molecules was not further restricted.
Conclusion
In artificial soils, the viscosity of hydrogel structures between mineral particles and the additional formation of an external network by polymer-clay interactions such as polyvalent cation bridging seem to promote microstructural stability.
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Acknowledgements
The study was funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG (SCHA 849/5). We thank Eike Sünger for his help in the laboratory and with the sample preparation and all members of the research group for fruitful discussions. We further thanks Marcio-Fernando Cobo and Harald Todt from Bruker BioSpin for helping with the two-dimensional 1H-NMR measurements and for providing the respective pulse sequences for test purposes.
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Buchmann, C., Schaumann, G.E. Effect of water entrapment by a hydrogel on the microstructural stability of artificial soils with various clay content. Plant Soil 414, 181–198 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-3110-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-3110-z
Keywords
- NMR relaxometry
- Hydrogel swelling
- Rheology
- Soil microstructure
- Soil stability