Synthesis and water-holding performance of agricultural water retaining agent made form soybean straw.

Agricultural water retaining agent(AWRA) was synthesized by the graft copolymerization of acrylic acid(AA) onto chemically modified soybean straw(CMSS).The optimized reaction conditions were determined basing on the orthogonal experiment and the single factor experiment.The maximum Absorbency of the optimized final product was 427g/g in tap water.The chemical structures of soybean straw before and after modification and the product were characterized by IR spectra.It was validated that the pretreatment was proper and AA were grafted onto soybean straw fiber successfully.A method of simulation soil column was used to measure the soil water retaining capability of agricultural water retaining agent,the results showed that it reduced water loss obviously and the higher application amounts will produced the better effects.