Solid-State Encapsulation of Urea via Mechanochemistry-Driven Engineering of Metal-Phenolic Networks

O Mazaheri; A Zavabeti; RV McQuillan; Z Lin; MS Alivand; E Della Gaspera; D Chen; F Caruso; H Suter; KA Mumford

Journal article

Solid-State Encapsulation of Urea via Mechanochemistry-Driven Engineering of Metal-Phenolic Networks

O Mazaheri, A Zavabeti, RV McQuillan, Z Lin, MS Alivand, E Della Gaspera, D Chen, F Caruso, H Suter, KA Mumford

Chemistry of Materials | Published : 2023

DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c01696

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Abstract

Controlled-release fertilizers (CRFs) are sustainable alternatives as they can increase crop yield and minimize environmental contamination associated with conventional fertilizers. However, there remains a demand for the development of CRFs with high biocompatibility, and tunable morphologies and mechanical properties. Herein, a solvent-free mechanochemical method is developed for synthesizing urea-encapsulated metal-phenolic networks (urea-MPN matrices) as CRFs. The matrices exhibit tunable mechanical resistance, crystallinity, stiffness, and wettability properties via rearranging the internal structure of the MPNs and their subsequent interaction with the encapsulated urea crystals. Sampl..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Omid Mazaheri Author

Ali Zavabeti Author

Rebecca McQuillan Author

Zhixing Lin Author

Related Projects (2)

NEW FERTILISER TECHNOLOGIES FOR SUSTAINED FOOD SECURITY

This project aims to provide fundamental research to develop next-generation fertiliser products that will improve nitrogen use efficiency, ..

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Grants

Awarded by University of Melbourne

Funding Acknowledgements

This research was supported under the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Research Program funding scheme (IH200100023) and the ARC Linkage Project funding scheme (LP160101417). F.C. acknowledges the award of a National Health and Medical Research Council Leadership Fellowship (GNT2016732). A.Z. acknowledges support through the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE240100743) scheme. The research experiments were partly performed at the Materials Characterization and Fabrication Platform (MCFP) and the Bio21 Advanced Microscopy Facility at The University of Melbourne. We thank the Melbourne Trace Analysis for Chemical, Earth, and Environmental Sciences (TrACEES) Platform for access to the micro-CT scanner and Dr. Jay Black (School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne) for technical assistance with the micro-CT analyses. We thank Dr. Roya Khalil from Incitec Pivot Limited for helpful discussions on industrial concepts of the work.