Zeolite was first discovered by Cronstedt in 1756, according to some geochemists and scientists estimate that zeolite is the result of the condensation of volcanoes into volcanic rock, transformative rock, and sedimentary rock. Zeolites are alumina-silica crystals containing K+ (Potassium), Na+ (Sodium), Ca2+ (calcium), and Mg2+ (Magnesium) cations, while synthetic zeolites usually only contain K+ (calcium), and Na+ (Sodium). ). Zeolite has an active side that is negatively charged which can bind charge balancing cations. Zeolite has a hollow structure or pores, usually, this cavity is widely used as an adsorbent, filter, natural cation exchanger, and used as a catalyst.
First, zeolite has been popular since 1950 until now, Previously zeolite was a green stone and only used as decoration on walls, but as human civilization developed more and more sophisticated, the use of zeolite is also growing in various fields, especially in agriculture, usually the farmers use zeolites to maintain soil moisture, but not only that, there are several benefits of zeolites for agriculture, including:
1. Zeolites can improve soil conditions, ranging from physical, chemical, biological soil conditions, exchange cations in the soil, and improve soil aggregation,- so that the soil pores will increase.
2. The content of micro and macro elements contained in zeolite can increase the nutrient content of plants. because natural zeolite is a type of mineral or compound composed of hydrated silica (SiO2) with sodium (Na), potassium (K), and barium (Ba) cations, while synthetic zeolites usually contain potassium (K+) and sodium (Na+) compounds. has unique properties such as filtering or separating molecules based on molecular size and configuration, easy to modify, reusable, and non-toxic, so it is very good to be used as an adsorbent material as well as a natural exchange material.
3. Zeolites can reduce the solubility of Fe (iron) and Al (aluminum) ions, thereby reducing heavy metal poisoning in plants, this is supported by the unique properties of zeolites such as filters or separating molecules based on molecular size and configuration, easy to modify, can reusable, and non-toxic, so it is very good to be used as an adsorbent material as well as a natural exchange material. So that the zeolite can absorb the content of (Fe) Ferrum which is quite effective.
4. release the nutrients needed by plants regularly and longer, because zeolite has a hollow structure that can absorb the elements needed by plants. For example, in the efficiency of fertilization (N) Nitrogen with the addition of zeolite can absorb the ammonium released by the fertilizer. If the nitrate in the soil decreases, the ammonium that has been absorbed by the zeolite will be released back into the soil. With that, (N) nitrogen that has been given to the soil can be available for a longer time. The comparison is if fertilization (N) nitrogen does not use zeolite, the nitrate will quickly change.
5. Zeolite can be used as a Plant Growing Media as well as being useful for minimizing the loss of fertilizer carried by water, and can eliminate odors. The advantages of zeolite in various fields have been described in the previous article. If you don’t mind check out our full article on the Nusagri blog.