Porous Slow Release Silicate-Phosphate Glasses Synthesized by Polymer- Derived Ceramics Method Appropriate for Plants Nourishment

As an alternative to conventional fertilizers, e.g. NPK (the Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium-containing chemical fertilizers) which release their nutrients in a short time glass fertilizers are ideal as they release macroand micronutrients for crops and plant nourishment more gradually. Also, despite conventional ones, they have no ground-water pollution. In the present study, glass fertilizers were synthesized via polymer-derived ceramics (PDC) method. Despite the melt-casting procedure, PDC needs lower temperatures in heat treatment. The precursors consist of poly-siloxane and active fillers. Thus, thanks to gaseous release during heat treatment of the present active fillers, i.e. Ca(OH)2, MgCO3, and Al(OH)3, a porous microstructure can be generated. In order to manipulate the pore size and specific surface area, fractions of calcined active fillers were used. The experiments showed that upon the increase of non-calcined active fillers, the specific surface area and the amount of porosity were increased due to more gaseous release during heat treatment. Thus, affected by microstructure, the release rate of macro and micro-elements was higher in the sample containing non-calcined active fillers, in comparison to other samples. Additionally, the porous samples were able to be loaded by extra nutrients containing Nitrogen, like KNO3.