Volume 140, Issue 44 e54624
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Surface grafting stearic acid to the coupling agent on attapulgite: A reinforced filler in castor oil-based polyurethane coating

Shiping Wang

Shiping Wang

National Engineering Research Center of Chemical Fertilizer Catalyst, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China

Qingyuan Innovation Laboratory, Quanzhou, China

Contribution: Formal analysis (lead), Funding acquisition (lead), ​Investigation (lead), Writing - original draft (lead)

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Lushen Shen

Lushen Shen

National Engineering Research Center of Chemical Fertilizer Catalyst, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China

Contribution: Data curation (lead), ​Investigation (supporting)

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Honglin Yang

Honglin Yang

National Engineering Research Center of Chemical Fertilizer Catalyst, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China

Contribution: Data curation (supporting), ​Investigation (supporting)

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Guohui Cai

Corresponding Author

Guohui Cai

National Engineering Research Center of Chemical Fertilizer Catalyst, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China

Correspondence

Guohui Cai, Yingying Zhan, and Lilong Jiang, National Engineering Research Center of Chemical Fertilizer Catalyst, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, China Email: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]

Contribution: Supervision (equal), Writing - review & editing (equal)

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Ganchang Lei

Ganchang Lei

National Engineering Research Center of Chemical Fertilizer Catalyst, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China

Contribution: Validation (equal)

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Lijuan Shen

Lijuan Shen

College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, China

Contribution: Validation (equal)

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Yingying Zhan

Corresponding Author

Yingying Zhan

National Engineering Research Center of Chemical Fertilizer Catalyst, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China

Qingyuan Innovation Laboratory, Quanzhou, China

Correspondence

Guohui Cai, Yingying Zhan, and Lilong Jiang, National Engineering Research Center of Chemical Fertilizer Catalyst, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, China Email: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]

Contribution: Funding acquisition (lead), Resources (supporting), Supervision (equal), Writing - review & editing (equal)

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Lilong Jiang

Corresponding Author

Lilong Jiang

National Engineering Research Center of Chemical Fertilizer Catalyst, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China

Qingyuan Innovation Laboratory, Quanzhou, China

Correspondence

Guohui Cai, Yingying Zhan, and Lilong Jiang, National Engineering Research Center of Chemical Fertilizer Catalyst, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, China Email: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]

Contribution: Funding acquisition (lead), Resources (lead), Supervision (equal), Writing - review & editing (equal)

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First published: 04 September 2023

Abstract

Developing economic controlled-release fertilizers (CRFs) with superior performance is an ongoing and important research area. This work investigated the co-modification of acid-activated attapulgite (ac-AT) to optimize its surface properties for polyurethane (PU) composite applications, specifically in the coatings of CRFs. The modified ac-AT (MAT) rods were obtained through treatment with 2.0 wt.% KH-560 coupling agent and in-situ grafting with stearic acid (SA). Varying the addition amount of SA resulted in the synthesis of different MAT fillers. Along with the adjustment of the filling amount, the properties of the MAT/PU composites were controlled. Notably, applying 1.5 wt.% SA onto the KH-560 treated ac-AT produced MAT with a contact angle of 100.8°, enhancing hydrophobicity and dispersion within the PU matrix. Furthermore, at a filling amount of 9.0 wt.%, the MAT/PU composite exhibited the most favorable properties with a tensile strength of 2.37 MPa, making it the optimal coating for CRFs with 75% nutrient release within 46 days while the coating efficiency was 3.0 wt.%. This co-modification approach shows great potential in enhancing filler properties and promoting their application in organic coatings.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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