Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy.
Fabbrica Cooperativa Perfosfati Cerea, San Pietro di Morubio, VR, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2019 Aug 2;9(1):11252. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-47492-y.
Nanomaterials are widely used in medical and pharmaceutical fields, but their application in plant nutrition is at its infancy. Phosphorous (P) and iron (Fe) are essential mineral nutrients limiting in a wide range of conditions the yield of crops. Phosphate and Fe fertilizers to-date on the market display low efficiency (P fertilizers) and low persistence in soil (Fe fertilizers) and negatively affect the environment. In the tentative to overcome these problems, we developed a continuous industrially scalable method to produce FePO NPs based on the rapid mixing of salt solutions in a mixing chamber. The process, that included the addition of citrate as capping agent allowed to obtain a stable suspension of NPs over the time. The NPs were tested for their effectiveness as P and Fe sources on two hydroponically grown crop species (cucumber and maize) comparing their effects to those exerted by non-nanometric FePO (bulk FePO). The results showed that FePO NPs improved the availability of P and Fe, if compared to the non-nano counterpart, as demonstrated by leaf SPAD indexes, fresh biomasses and P and Fe contents in tissues. The results open a new avenue in the application of nanosized material in the field of plant nutrition and fertilization.
纳米材料在医学和制药领域得到了广泛的应用，但在植物营养领域的应用还处于起步阶段。磷（P）和铁（Fe）是必需的矿物营养元素，在广泛的条件下限制了作物的产量。目前市场上的磷酸盐和铁肥料效率低（P 肥料），在土壤中的持久性低（Fe 肥料），并对环境产生负面影响。为了克服这些问题，我们开发了一种连续的、可工业放大的方法，基于在混合室中快速混合盐溶液来生产 FePO NPs。该工艺包括添加柠檬酸作为封端剂，以获得 NPs 的稳定悬浮液。我们将 NPs 作为 P 和 Fe 源在两种水培作物（黄瓜和玉米）上进行了测试，将其效果与非纳米级 FePO（块状 FePO）进行了比较。结果表明，与非纳米级的 FePO 相比，FePO NPs 提高了 P 和 Fe 的有效性，如叶片 SPAD 指数、新鲜生物量以及组织中的 P 和 Fe 含量所示。这些结果为纳米材料在植物营养和施肥领域的应用开辟了新途径。
