ReviewRSC advances2026
Engineered carbon-based fertilizers for sustainable agriculture: physicochemical mechanisms of nutrient release, soil health improvement, and plant uptake.
Review in RSC advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The intensive use of synthetic mineral fertilizers has sustained global crop productivity but has also contributed to greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient losses, and progressive soil degradation. Carbon-based fertilizers (CBFs) represent an emerging class of functional carbon materials that integrate nutrient retention and delivery with carbon stabilization and soil-rhizosphere interactions. CBFs can be derived from diverse biomass feedstocks, including crop residues, livestock manure, and organic waste, through thermochemical and biological conversion routes such as pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonization, composting, and anaerobic digestion. This review critically examines the evolution of CBFs from conventional carbon-rich soil amendments toward engineered nutrient-delivery systems with tailored physicochemical and interfacial properties. Particular emphasis is placed on carbonization and activation strategies; pore architecture; specific surface area; surface charge; oxygen-containing functional groups; and surface functionalization, and on their influence on nutrient adsorption-desorption, ion exchange, complexation, diffusion, and controlled release. Advanced modification strategies, including chemical activation, co-pyrolysis, mineral-organic functionalization, and nano-carbon integration, are further evaluated, with emphasis on nano-biochar, graphene derivatives, and carbon dots. The review also examines interactions among carbon matrices, nutrients, and rhizosphere microorganisms, distinguishing established physicochemical and microbial mechanisms from emerging stimuli-responsive and nano-enabled delivery concepts. Finally, the laboratory-to-field translation gap is critically assessed, highlighting how soil heterogeneity, environmental variability, material transformation, and microbial dynamics influence CBF performance and identifying priorities for reproducible, field-validated, and environmentally responsible fertilizer development.
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.