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Zinc (Zn) use efficiency hardly exceeds 2–3% and major portion of added Zn gets fixed in the soil. In order to improve the Zn use efficiency by crops, a laboratory study was undertaken at the Department of Nano Science and Technology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India, to develop Zn fertilizer using nano-zeolite as a substrate. The natural zeolite (clinoptilolite) was ball milled to achieve nano-dimension (90–110 nm) and fortified with Zn by loading Zinc sulphate (ZnSO4). The zeolite was characterized before and after loading of Zn using particle size analyzer, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Raman Spectroscopy, X-ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscope and Transmission Electron Microscope. The data clearly indicated that the nano-zeolite was loaded successfully loaded with Zn to the tune of 14% and Zn presence in the substrate was confirmed by Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy. After the synthesis, sorption and desorption pattern of Zn of the nano-zeolite was examined using a percolation reactor. The results showed that Zn release from the nano-zeolite substrate has prolonged for a period of 1,176 hrs, while the Zn release from the ordinary ZnSO4 ceased to exist within 216 hrs. The data suggest that the nano-sized zeolite is capable of retaining Zn and slowly release into the soil solution, which may be served as a slow release Zn fertilizer and improve use efficiency by crops.
Yuvaraj et al. (Thu,) studied this question.