An Asian Journal of Soil Science Volume 8 | Issue 2 | December, 2013 | 249-254
Research Article
Effect of high energy ball milling on particle size and surface area of adsorbents for efficient loading of fertilizer A. MANIKANDAN, K.S. SUBRAMANIAN AND K. PANDIAN Received : 17.07.2013; Revised : 25.08.2013; Accepted : 07.09.2013 MEMBERS OF RESEARCH FORUM :
Summary
Corresponding author : A. MANIKANDAN, Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, COIMBATORE (T.N.) INDIA
The effect of high energy ball milling (HEBM) on adsorbents was studied to develop nano-fertilizer for agriculture. Biochar and zeolite possess an alkaline pH, negative Electrical Conductivity (EC), high Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), and are microporous to mesoporous in nature. Laboratory study was conducted under three different revolutions per minute (rpm) speeds and varying time up to six hours. Homogenous powder was produced by ball milling technique with four different hours. The particle size distribution has been found that reduced size (260, 203 nm) was observed and surface area increased one fold (185 m2g-1) and three fold (110 m2g-1) with decreased particle size after six hours ball milling of biochar and zeolite respectively and it reduces the particle size to nano-scale level. High speed and long duration improved the nanoparticle production. This study suggests that natural adsorbents have less specific surface area initially which increases significantly after ball milling.
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Co-authors : K.S. SUBRAMANIAN, Department of
Nano Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, COIMBATORE (T.N.) INDIA Email:
[email protected]
Key words : Biochar, Zeolite, Surface area and Slow release fertilizer How to cite this article : Manikandan, A., Subramanian, K.S., Pandian, K. (2013). Effect of high energy ball milling on particle size and surface area of adsorbents for efficient loading of fertilizer. Asian J. Soil Sci., 8(2): 249-254.
K. PANDIAN, Department of
Inorganic Chemistry, University of Madras, CHENNAI (T.N.) INDIA Email:
[email protected]
Introduction Importance of biochar was recognised for its role in carbon sequestration and alternate nitrogen fertilizer for ammonia capture (Kurt et al., 2012). Biochar is a solid carbon as granules and look like charcoal and the production process utilize cellulosic biomass such as wood chips, corn stover, rice husk, peanut hulls, tree bark, paper mill sludge, animal manure and most urban, agricultural and forestry biomass residues are heated under limited oxygen present and or nil in a specially designed pyrolysis-stove. The micro porous structure of biochar produced from cellulosic plant material inherits the architecture of the feedstock. Zeolites are a group of highly crystalline hydrated aluminosilicate minerals, that when dehydrated, develop a porous structure with minimum
pore diameters of 0.3 to 1.0 nm (Li, 2003). All zeolites are considered as molecular sieve materials that can selectively adsorb molecules based on their size (Caballero et al., 2008). The pronounced selectivity of zeolite for large cations, such as ammonium and potassium, has also been exploited in the preparation of chemical fertilizers that improve the nutrientretention ability of the soils by promoting slow release of these elements for uptake by plants (Subramanian and Sharmila, 2012). Top down approach of ball milling is a simple technique used to reduce the particle size to nano-scales (Fu et al., 2003). Ball milling offers many advantages like easy handling, possibility to produce large quantities, and applicability to a wide range of different classes of nanomaterials (Yiping et al.,
HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE
A. MANIKANDAN, K.S. SUBRAMANIAN AND K. PANDIAN
2007). High-energy ball milling (HEBM), more powerful attritor ball mill was developed to synthesize new oxidedispersion-strengthened alloys and was first reported by Benjamin et al. (1970). HEBM is universally applicable for quick drying or wet grinding of organic and inorganic samples (Aurawan and Panuthat, 2006). For particle size distribution analysis various methods were followed like sieve analysis (macro particle size), sedimentation method (up to µm size), laser light scattering (1nm-1µm) and dynamic light scattering (
