Nowadays, the degradation of agricultural soil due to various factors should be a major concern for everyone. In this study, a new sodium alginate-g-acrylic acid-based hydrogel was developed simultaneously by cross-linking and grafting with accelerated electrons to be used as soil remediation. The effect of irradiation dose and NaAlg contents on the gel fraction, network and structural parameters, sol-gel analysis, swelling power, and swelling kinetics of NaAlg-g-AA hydrogels have been investigated. It was demonstrated that NaAlg hydrogels show significative swelling power that is greatly dependent on their composition and irradiation dose; they keep the structure and are not degraded in different pH conditions and different water sources. Diffusion data revealed a non-Fickian transport mechanism (0.61-0.99) also specific to cross-linked hydrogels. The prepared hydrogels were proved as excellent candidates in sustainable agriculture applications.
Keywords: cross-linking; electron beam; hydrogel; swelling.