EFFECT OF NANOFILLERS ON THE SPREADING BEHAVIOUR OF BIOPOLYMER BLENDS ON UREA SURFACE

Recently, the controlled release technology has been developed through coating process
which helps in increasing the efficiency of fertilizer besides reducing the fertilizer’s
losses and minimizing environmental pollution. This paper presented new approach
where a new modified biopolymer filled with nanoclay is developed and used as the
coating material for the slow- or controlled-release fertilizer. The use of nanofiller is
predicted to give a better spreading behavior which ensures the uniformity of coating
process. Uniformity of urea coating is crucial as it will provide a steady and constant
release of nutrients. Better wettability properties of a biopolymer droplet promotes
formation of thin-film on urea surface and thus certifies the uniformity in coating process.
Various sample consist of seven different blending ratio of modified biopolymer are
prepared and evaluated for wettability properties. The wettability properties measured in
this research project includes surface tension, contact angle and the maximum spreading
diameter. Surface tensiometer or OCA 20 device is used to capture every single images of
this droplet impact behavior. From experimental procedure, the spreading behavior of
modified biopolymer on urea surface after addition of nanoclay filler is analyzed. The
addition of 2% of nanoclay filler into 50/15/2.5/7.5 blending ratio had reduced the surface
tension and contact angle of the droplet impact which provides the better wettability
properties and spreading behaviour compared to the 50/15/2.5/7.5 blending ratio without
addition of nanoclay filler. Therefore, it is proven that small amount of nanoclay filler
added into the modified biopolymer solution had enhanced the spreading behavior of the
droplet impact on the urea surface.