The potassium is one of the most important macronutrients to the soil. However, in the Brazilian soils this nutrient becomes scarce due to the high acidity of tropical soils. Thus, the demand for alternative sources of potassium grows considerably. In this context, we performed a chemical and mineralogical characterization of a verdete from Cedro do Abaeté, Minas Gerais, as well as an evaluation of the verdete thermal treatment, with or without addition of calcium oxide (CaO), in order to solubilize the potassium present in the rock. The characterization of this rock was developed by the techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and infrared spectroscopy (IR). The evaluation of the XRF results showed that the rock has 6,95 mass% of K2O, related to the presence of glauconite. This was confirmed by the XRD due to the presence of characteristics peaks at 1.0, 0.45, 0.24 e 0.15 nm and the occurrence of IR bands at 3520, 3440, 1020 and 630 cm-1. There is also a high content of SiO2 (64,65%), indicative of the presence of quartz, which is characterized by an intense peak at 0.335 nm. During the thermal treatment, the verdete was heated for 2 hours at a temperature of 1200 ºC. In order to increase the solubility of potassium present in the rock, reactions were carried out with CaO in proportions of 10, 20 and 30% by weight. The structural changes in the rock were followed by XRD and IR. The changes in the position of the characteristic bands of Si-O, in the IR spectra at around 1100 cm-1, and the disappearance of X-ray diffraction peaks, related to glauconite, confirmed the reaction between the rock and the CaO. The reaction with 20% of CaO allowed an extraction of 7.7 % of the potassium present in the sample.
Verdete; thermopotassium; glauconite; slow release fertilizer
