Super-absorbent hydrogel for soilless farming enables plants to thrive in drought conditions

It is an entirely biodegradable and environmentally friendly system for hydroponic agriculture, in hydrogel and capable of supporting plant growth with a minimum of water; In the future, he will be able to monitor the health of plants in real time. This innovation is the result of joint research between the Faculty of Engineering at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Unibz) and at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Iit-Italian Institute of Technology) in Genoa. The invention provides a zero-waste and low-environment impact solution for agriculture, an increasingly threatened sector by climate change, drought, pollution, loss of biodiversity and soil degradation.

The study was published in the journal ACS Science and Agricultural Technology And Stems from A Multidisciplinary Project Involving Researchers from the Faculty of Engineering of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Unibz) —Camilla Febo, Researcher at Iit and Unibz, Professors Paolo Lugli and Luisa Petti of the Sensing Technologies Lab, in Collaboration with professors Tanjo and Luigimaria Borruso from the Faculty of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences in Unibz, as part of the Plant Health Health Center – and the Intelligent Material Unit of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Iit) —athanassia athanassiou, principal researcher and scientific director of Iit, and researcher of Iit Danila Merino.

Hydrogels are materials whose internal structure is made up of a polymer network, designed to be porous and therefore very advantageous in applications where it is important to keep water or nutrients. In horticulture, they emerge as lasting alternatives with oil -based foams and pots.

In the Iit de Genoa laboratories, researchers produced hydrogels from biopolymers, in particular carraghenian, a polysaccharide extract of red algae and widely used for its gelifying, thickening and stabilizing properties. The resulting hydrogel is biodegradable and can be applied safely on the ground without causing pollution. The team has enriched porous material with whole algae extracts, which serve as biostimulants: substances that stimulate natural plants to improve the effectiveness of nutrients, tolerance to stress and the quality of cultures, regardless of nutrient content.

The final material has the ideal properties for use in agriculture without schooling, such as hydroponics, and requires only minimum quantities of water. Plant tests were carried out in Bolzano laboratories.

The research team has shown that hydrogel can keep large amounts of water, inflating up to 7000% and can also support plant growth from seeds. The tests with the model Arabidopsis model Thaliana have demonstrated a more vigorous growth process compared to traditional hydroponic substrates.

Scientists in the south of Tyrolean also plan to integrate flexible and biodegradable sensors into these hydrogel scaffolding, allowing precision agriculture by monitoring plant health and real -time soil conditions.

“Our goal,” said Febo, a researcher at Unibz / Iit, was to develop a material that was not only biodegradable and durable, but which could also actively interact with plants, effectively providing them with water and nutrients.

“At a time in history when freshwater resources decrease considerably and plastics are increasingly polluting the environment, in Iit, we focus on the development of intelligent and sustainable materials to counter these effects thanks to concrete solutions for key sectors such as agriculture,” said Athanassiou, scientific vice-director of Iit and head of the unit of intelligent materials.

“In this work, we have used exclusively natural marine resources to design a hydrogel which retains water and provides nutrients to plants. Material engineering from natural resources is one of the fundamental fields of the coordinated research unit, with applications ranging from precision agriculture to packaging, water purification, green electronics and biodiversity Marine. “

“Technological innovation must go hand in hand with environmental sustainability,” comments Petti, professor and head of the Unibz detection technology laboratory.

“In our laboratory, we focus on the design of flexible and biodegradable electronic devices that can be integrated into intelligent agricultural systems. Hydrogel developed in collaboration with Iit in Genoa is a concrete example of how technology can support agriculture by improving the efficiency of resources and reducing environmental challenges.