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In the reaction of urea, formaldehyde, and ammonia, a highly water soluble ring structure known as
urea-triazone predominantly forms.
NH
2
H
2
N
O
H H
O
NH
3
+
+
N
N
N
O
H
H
R
R = H, CH
3
, CH
2
OH, CH
2
NHCONH
2
Urea-Forms +
In most of these products produced from the reaction of urea and formaldehyde, or urea-formaldehyde-
ammonia, the reaction products contain SRN in the form of aqueous solutions of water-soluble organic
nitrogen species and some unreacted, free urea. The unreacted or free urea provides readily available
nitrogen and therefore should be deducted from the slowly released nitrogen portion.
Quantitative analysis of these SRN fertilizer solutions for all of the reacted nitrogen forms in these
fertilizers is time consuming and impractical or even impossible. The complex composition of an
example of a fertilizer produced from the reaction of urea, formaldehyde, and ammonia is shown in
Figure - 1 below:
Figure 1
Liquid Chromatography of Triazone Fertilizer