INVESTIGATION OF GEOPOLYMER DEGRADATION IN CONTROL RELEASE FERTILIZER (CRF) APPLICATION

Geopolymer is one of the new control release fertilizer (CRF) that will have the
potential to replace the current CRFs as it is eco-friendly and manufactured through
sustainable production processes. Degradation ofthe geopolymer is being studies asthe
geopolymer needs to be degraded in order to be use as urea coating material. Inefficient
of conventional fertilizer that makes nutrient lost to the environment that will cause
serious environmental problems as well as the polymer coating material that will leave
undesired residue of synthetic polymer material that lead to the contamination of soil,
lead to the research of developing a new control release fertilizer using geopolymer.
With the improvement in the performance due to the controllable structure, lower
manufacturing cost due to proprietary process and low cost raw materials, and superior
eco-friendly characteristics, geopolymer-based CRFs seem to provide a novel fertilizer
and associated manufacturing technology solution with improved performance.
Geopolymer degradation study is important to see whether geopolymer can degrade or
not and suitable to be used as urea coating material. The effect of pH towards
geopolymer degradation also being studied to see what isthe effect ofchanging the pH
towards the degradation of geopolymer. Amylase enzyme is used in this research to
help the degradation of geopolymer. To study the geopolymer degradation, Fourier
Transform Infared (FTIR) is used as FTIR can show provide info on analyte chemical
structure like bonding and functional group. Analysis of the infrared spectra showed a
slight decreased of certain specific peaks of geopolymer. This showed that geopolymer
can degrade, but it takes time to fully degrade. Some modification for the amylase
enzyme concentration and geopolymer can be made for a better result for geopolymer
degradation.