Evaluación de la eficiencia de la técnica de cromatografía de papel como herramienta para el diagnóstico in situ del nitrógeno (Urea) presente en el suelo y su correlación con los resultados de análisis químicos

Abstract

Chromatography is a physical method of separating complex mixtures, the purpose of which is to separate the different components of a mixture to identify and determine the quantities of said components. There are different chromatography techniques; however, for this research work flat chromatography was considered, which is based on a stationary phase that is located on a paper. To apply a chromatographic analysis of paper in soils it is necessary to follow a disciplined methodological process in which it consists of several stages at the field and laboratory level. The research consisted of six treatments including the control, each treatment with five replicates; the repetitions were constituted by plastic pots obtaining a total of thirty plastic pots with soil for the respective chromatographic and chemical analyses. In addition, five different doses of urea were applied, ranging from five to twenty-five grams per square meter per pot (25 g m-2 unit-1 ). The results suggest that paper chromatography in soils could be a rapid, effective, easy-to-use and low-cost diagnostic tool compared to chemical analyses performed in commercial laboratories, which allows it to be done by peasants, technicians or students. Values of r² 0.83 for the treatment with control and r² of 0.61 in the treatment without control, indicate a strong correlation between the results of the chromatography with the concentration of nitrogen (Urea) determined by chemical soil analysis.