Use of polymers and biopolymers for water retaining and soil stabilization in arid and semiarid regions

The use of polymers as a soil-stabilizer additive has expanded significantly in agricultural use to control soil degradation and desertification and also to improve arid and semi arid soils. This research was conducted to determine the effects of different synthetic polymers and biopolymers at low concentration (0.03 % – 1%) at arid and semi arid soil of North Africa. Polystyrene, Polyacrylamide; Cellulose and the mixture of Polyacrylamide with other polymers were characterized by viscosity, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray Diffractometry, thermal analysis (TG and DSC) and Scanning electron micrographs (SEM). The results showed that the polymer composites (10 mg/L Polyacrylamide and 0.5g / L Cellulose) in soil could improve better soil physical properties and augment 60 % water retention at arid soils compared with application of any other polymer at the same concentration. This work can help to improve the productivity of arid and semi arid soils by using low concentration of biopolymers from plant fibers and polymers from synthetic plastics compounds or wastes plastic industry to augment water holding capacity improve the physical properties of soils by binding soils particles together reducing the losses of water by evaporation and deep percoloration, and to make valuable products of plastic industry and renewable organic fibers to protect environment.