In modern agriculture, fertilizers are the most significant prerequisite to ensure sustainable crop production, and the intervention of chemical fertilizers has markedly increased crop production and quality. Unfortunately, plants cannot uptake a significant amount of nutrients (>50%) from the applied fertilizers, resulting in low fertilizer use efficiency. The nutrient losses due to leaching, volatilization, denitrification, fixation, erosion, and runoff could result in low fertilizer use efficiency and create environmental pollution as well as a rise in the cost of fertilizer application. To minimize such losses, researchers have suggested various strategies, one of which is the synthesis and application of slow-release fertilizers to extend the bioavailability of nutrients by the sustained release throughout the crop growth period. However, the high cost of current slow-release fertilizers is a major challenge for their widespread use. Carbon-based materials, especially biochar and lignite, have been shown to be effective as soil amendment in recent times. Additionally, these materials have an excellent ability to adsorb nutrients due to their high porosity, surface area, and abundance of functional groups. The cost-effective and abundant supply of these materials across the world can serve as an excellent nutrient-carrier in order to formulate climate-smart and cost-effective slow-release fertilizers. In this review paper, the potential of these materials as nutrient carriers, nutrient adsorption and desorption mechanisms, synthesis methods, nutrient release behavior, and agronomic and environmental implications are discussed in detail for future research priorities as the literature in this direction is very limited and scattered.

在现代农业中，肥料是确保作物可持续生产的最重要先决条件，而化学肥料的干预已显着提高了作物的产量和质量。不幸的是，植物无法从施用的肥料中吸收大量的养分（> 50％），导致肥料使用效率低下。由于淋滤，挥发，反硝化，固着，侵蚀和径流造成的养分流失会导致肥料使用效率低下，造成环境污染，并增加肥料使用成本。为了最大程度地减少此类损失，研究人员提出了各种策略，其中之一是合成和施用缓释肥料，以通过在整个作物生长期持续释放来扩展养分的生物利用度。然而，当前的缓释肥料的高成本是其广泛使用的主要挑战。碳基材料，特别是生物炭和褐煤，最近已被证明可以有效地作为土壤改良剂。此外，由于它们的高孔隙率，表面积和丰富的官能团，这些材料具有极好的吸附营养的能力。这些材料在全球范围内具有成本效益和充足的供应量，可以用作配制营养型智能，成本效益高的缓释肥料的优良营养载体。在这篇综述文章中，这些材料作为养分载体，养分吸收和解吸机理，合成方法，养分释放行为的潜力，