Impact of bionanocomposite on aggregation rate of soil colloids

Soil degradation is a global issue, as the demand for food and feed consumption is growing rapidly every day, and agricultural land needed for their production is declining rapidly. The UN reports that 24 billion tons of fertile land are lost every year. One of the most important parameters causing and maintaining soil fertility is the presence of water-stable macroaggregates (> 0.25 mm) with a developed porous structure. In natural soil, aggregate formation occurs under the following main processes – coagulation with polyvalent cations, “glueing”/cementation under the action of mineral amorphous "glues" (silica, metal oxides/ hydroxides) and organic amphiphilic substances (microbial exopolymers and humic substances). In this research work we estimated the impact of bio-nanocomposite and its individual constituents with structure forming ability on the remediation efficacy of a degraded soil model sample.
The bio-nanocomposite was synthesised from active sludge. The composition of the bio-nanocomposite includes mineral matter – 36 %, organic matter – 64 %, humic acids, fulvic acids, ammonifying bacteria, nitrate-assimilating bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, and metal nanoparticles in form of insoluble or sparingly soluble salts. To assess the effect of the concentration of bio-nanocomposite on the aggregation of soil colloids, the nanocomposites were added to the model soil system in concentrations of 1%, 2.5%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 50%, and compared with control unenriched soil.  The dynamics of soil colloids aggregation was assessed by the value of the optical density of aqueous suspensions at four months. The results indicate a correlation between the concentration of the introduced bio-nanocomposite and the degree of soil colloids aggregation – up to 70% after 2 months of incubation and up to 80% after 4 months. Analysis of the impact on the structure-forming processes of individual constituents of the bio-nanocomposite showed that nanoparticles of polyvalent metals made the most significant contribution (82 %), humic and fulvic acids had slightly less influence (80% and 78%, respectively). Exopolymers had the weakest effect on aggregation processes. Since exopolymers act as natural flocculants, their flocculating properties are highly dependent on the concentration, and at high concentrations they can stabilize colloidal particles.