Functional Gels for Agricultural and Environmental Applications
A special issue of Gels (ISSN 2310-2861). This special issue belongs to the section "Gel Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 29882
Special Issue Editors
Interests: soil remediation; water purification; pollutant removal; hydrogel; gel-based fertlizer; natural organicmatter; biogeochemical behavior of pollutants
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Gels (aerogels, hydrogels, etc.) have a huge potential in agricultural and environmental applications due to their abundant porous structure and surface groups, great mechanical strength, excellent design flexibility, and biocompatibility. However, developing functional gels for broader application scenarios and better application effects is still a big challenge.
This Special Issue is focused on the synthesis and characterization of novel functional gel-based materials and their agricultural and environmental application. We look forward to the submission of frontier studies and reviews on the development and application of functional gels in agricultural and environmental fields including, but not limited to, the following topics:
(1) As water-retaining agents to retain soil moisture; as fertilizers to enhance soil nutrients and plants grow, especially slow-release fertilizers; and as recyclable adsorbents to reduce soil pollutants;
(2) Adsorption of poisonous gases, greenhouse gases, heavy metal ions or organic pollutants, haze, dust, microorganisms, etc. In this topic, we believe that peer experts are more interested in the studies on the novel and trace pollutants, combined pollution, or the extreme adsorption conditions (extremely high/low pH or temperature, high saline, etc.);
(3) Self-cleaning, photothermal conversion, energy storage, thermal insulation, environmental sensing or monitoring, etc. Preparation of the DGT device with gel-based materials as the diffusive layer and its application in elements detection is one of the focuses of this Special Issue.
Dr. Yulong Zhang
Dr. Hui-Juan Xu
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- gel-based materials
- adsorbents
- water-retaining agents
- fertilizers
- environment pollution
- pollutant removal
- soil nutrients
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