Abstract
Nitrogen fertilizer delivery inefficiencies limit crop productivity and contribute to environmental pollution. Herein, we developed Zn- and Fe-doped hydroxyapatite nanomaterials (ZnHAU, FeHAU) loaded with urea (∼26% N) through hydrogen bonding and metal-ligand interactions. The nanomaterials attach to the leaf epidermal cuticle and localize in the apoplast of leaf epidermal cells, triggering a slow N release at acidic conditions (pH 5.8) that promote wheat (Triticum aestivum) growth and increased N uptake compared to conventional urea fertilizers. ZnHAU and FeHAU exhibited prolonged N release compared to urea in model plant apoplast fluid pH in vitro (up to 2 days) and in leaf membranes in plants (up to 10 days) with a high N retention (32% to 53%) under simulated high rainfall events (50 mm). Foliar N delivery doses of up to 4% as ZnHAU and FeHAU did not induce toxicity in plant cells. The foliar-applied ZnHAU and FeHAU enhanced fresh and dry biomass by ∼214% and ∼161%, and N uptake by ∼108% compared to foliar-applied urea under low soil N conditions in greenhouse experiments. Controlled N release by leaf-attached nanomaterials improves N delivery and use efficiency in crop plants, creating nanofertilizers with reduced environmental impact.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 3906-3919 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | ACS Nano |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 28 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2025 American Chemical Society.
Funding
This work was supported by the NSF ECO CBET grant no. 2133568 to G.V.L., J.P.G., and O.T. We are grateful to Hanna Poffenbarger, Associate Professor of Soil Nutrient Management, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, and David A. Van Sanford, Professor, University of Kentucky, USA, for the wheat seed material (Pembroke 2021). This work was performed in part at the University of Kentucky Electron Microscopy Center, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), which is supported by the National Science Foundation (NNCI- 2025075). Figure 1 was created in BioRender. Lab, G. (2025) https://BioRender.com/p12j381. This work was supported by the NSF ECO CBET grant no. 2133568 to G.V.L., J.P.G., and O.T. We are grateful to Hanna Poffenbarger, Associate Professor of Soil Nutrient Management, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, and David A. Van Sanford, Professor, University of Kentucky, USA, for the wheat seed material (Pembroke 2021). This work was performed in part at the University of Kentucky Electron Microscopy Center, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), which is supported by the National Science Foundation (NNCI-2025075). was created in BioRender. Lab, G. (2025) https://BioRender.com/p12j381 .
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky | |
| U.S. Department of Energy Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Project Oak Ridge National Laboratory Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment National Science Foundation National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center National Natural Science Foundation of China | 2133568, NNCI-2025075 |
Keywords
- foliar delivery
- nanocarriers
- plant nutrients
- slow release
- sustainable agriculture
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Materials Science
- General Engineering
- General Physics and Astronomy
