Enhanced legume root growth with pre-soaking in α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticle fertilizer

Abstract

A new approach to increase root growth in legumes by pre-soaking seeds in iron oxide nanoparticle growth solution.

Increased Plant Growth with Hematite Nanoparticle Fertilizer Drop and Determining Nanoparticle Uptake in Plants Using Multimodal Approach

“…The NPs were cleaned with DI water three times via centrifugation at 14000 rpm (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction characterization of these hematite NPs were reported in our earlier studies [21].…”

“…We used FTIR with ATR as a second noninvasive characterization technique requiring minimum sample preparation Journal of Nanomaterials to further understand the uptake and translocation of the NP fertilizer within the legumes [16,21]. The chemical composition of the shoot and leaves of the legumes grown from seeds presoaked in DI water, low-concentration NP fertilizer, and high-concentration NP fertilizer were investigated using an FTIR spectrometer.…”

“…Potting soil, pots, and seeds of chickpea (Cicer arientinum), green gram or mung bean (Vigna radiata), and black and red beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) were purchased from local grocery stores in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, for plant growth experiments. [21,31]. In a typical synthesis conducted on a Schlenk line, the Fe(acac) 3 iron precursor (2 mmol) was added to a PVP/PEI (PVP, 0.7 g and PEI, 0.3 g) ligand mixture in the solvent, TREG.…”

“…There is a need for a new environmental-friendly strategy that increases plant growth with a minimum quantity of the fertilizer while also minimizing the addition of fertilizer to the environment. Recently, we reported a seed presoak strategy where soaking the embryonic seeds of legumes in liquid dispersions of iron oxide NPs showed enhanced root growth by 88-366%, but more than 4 mL of NPs were required for each seed [21]. Minimizing the quantity of NP dispersions required would make the seed presoak strategy more effective for practical applications.…”

“…Most plant-NP interaction studies to date have focused on the physiological aspects as it is challenging to find a material characterization method capable of detecting the low concentrations of NPs uptaken within the complex biological matrix of plants [25]. Imaging techniques like optical and electron microscopy have been traditionally used to detect NPs within the plant cells [15,21,26,27]. However, optical microscopy cannot resolve objects less than 250 nm apart due to the diffraction limit of visible light even though it is rapid and requires negligible sample preparation.…”