Evaluation of the physical properties of slow release urea based on irradiated chitosan as a feed supplement

¹ Research Center for Radiation Process Technology, National Research and Innovation Agency, BRIN, Jakarta, Indonesia
² Graduate School of Nutrition and Feed Science, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia
³ Research Center for Environmental and Clean Technology, National Research and Innovation Agency, BRIN, Bandung, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: akhmadrasyids@gmail.com

Abstract

A favorable candidate for innovative feed supplement ingredients that can optimize nutrient utilization and reduce environmental impacts could be a slow-release urea based on irradiated chitosan. Chitosan, a biopolymer derived from chitin, has shown immense potential in various applications due to its unique physicochemical properties and biocompatibility. The findings of this study shed light on the promising prospects of irradiated chitosan as a feed supplement ingredient for slow-release urea formulations. Slow-release gel is composed by starch, acrylamide, polyvinyl alcohol and irradiated chitosan. Copolymer gels are treated by Co-60 gamma-ray with 5 kGy and 10 kGy absorbed doses. The lowest gel viscosity escalation is around four thousand times and the highest is more than seventy thousand times. As time of immersion and acrylamide raise in per vary from dose absorbed, gel swelling capacity also increases, start from 33.13 g/g at 5 minutes rise to 164.71 g/g at 720 minutes. Gel fraction from 5 kGy nearly increases two times from 53.57 g/g to 125 g/g at 10 kGy.