Impact of synthesized metal oxide nanomaterials on seedlings production of three Solanaceae crops

N A Younes; H Shokry Hassan; Marwa F Elkady; A M Hamed; Mona F A Dawood

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03188

Impact of synthesized metal oxide nanomaterials on seedlings production of three Solanaceae crops

Heliyon. 2020 Jan 30;6(1):e03188. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03188. eCollection 2020 Jan.

Authors

N A Younes¹, H Shokry Hassan^{2

3}, Marwa F Elkady^{4

5}, A M Hamed⁶, Mona F A Dawood⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Al-Azhar University-Assiut Branch, Assiut, Egypt.
² Electronic Materials Researches Department, Advanced Technology and New Materials Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, New Borg El-Arab, Alexandria, 21934, Egypt.
³ Environmental Engineering Department, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, New Borg El-Arab City, Alexandria, Egypt.
⁴ Chemical and Petrochemical Engineering Department, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, New Borg El-Arab City, Alexandria, 21934, Egypt.
⁵ Fabrication Technology Department, Advanced Technology and New Materials and Research Institute (ATNMRI), City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, Alexandria, 21934, Egypt.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University-Assiut Branch, Assiut, Egypt.
⁷ Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Assiut University, Assiut, 71516, Egypt.

Abstract

Prospective involvement of metal oxide nanomaterials as a prominent agriculture practice for improving existing crop production directed the present investigation for synthesizing of ZnO and TiO₂ nanomaterials as an attempt to enhance the transplants production of some Solanaceae crops. The morphological characterizations of the prepared nanomaterials indicated that the hydrothermal synthesized ZnO was produced in nanorod structure with an average aspect ratio of 7. However, SEM and TEM micrographs of microwave prepared TiO₂ evident that it has a nanoparticle structure with an average diameter of 43 nm. The BET results confirmed the high specific areas of the two prepared metal oxide nanomaterials. The two synthesized metal oxide nanomaterials were coated in gel and mixed with the seeds of eggplant, pepper and tomato crops at four concentrations 0, 50, 100 and 150 mg/L, whilst the control seeds were germinated in distilled water without gel-coating. The results pointed to the outstanding effect of TiO₂ and ZnO nanoparticles on germination characters and seedlings growth. The maximum transplants lengths, fresh and dry weight were recorded at the level 100 mg/L whatever the crop plant used. Hastening germination operation of nanomaterials-gel coated seedlings compared to control plants may be ascribed to the reduction of mean germination time and coefficient variation of the germination process besides increasing the mean germination rate and the synchrony of germination traits. Overall, better performance of growing transplants has been accredited for nanoparticles-gel coated seedlings more than the control treatments which could be efficient for the safer production of transplants in an innovative way.

Keywords: Agricultural science; Agriculture; Analytical chemistry; Biochemistry; Biotechnology; Capsicum annuum L.; Environmental science; Food safety; Food technology; Germination; Inorganic chemistry; Nano-TiO2; Nano-ZnO.; Nanomaterials-gel coated seedlings; Nanotechnology; Nutrition; Physiology; Plant biology; Solanum lycopersicum L.; Solanum melongena L..