Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug 18;10(8):1619.
doi: 10.3390/nano10081619.

Foliar Application of Low Concentrations of Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles to the Common Sunflower under Field Conditions

Marek Kolenčík  1   2 , Dávid Ernst  3 , Martin Urík  4 , Ľuba Ďurišová  5 , Marek Bujdoš  4 , Martin Šebesta  4 , Edmud Dobročka  6 , Samuel Kšiňan  5 , Ramakanth Illa  7 , Yu Qian  8 , Huan Feng  9 , Ivan Černý  3 , Veronika Holišová  10 , Gabriela Kratošová  2
Affiliations

Foliar Application of Low Concentrations of Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles to the Common Sunflower under Field Conditions

Marek Kolenčík et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

Nano-fertilisers have only recently been introduced to intensify plant production, and there still remains inadequate scientific knowledge on their plant-related effects. This paper therefore compares the effects of two nano-fertilisers on common sunflower production under field conditions. The benefits arising from the foliar application of micronutrient-based zinc oxide fertiliser were compared with those from the titanium dioxide plant-growth enhancer. Both the zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) were delivered by foliar application in nano-size at a concentration of 2.6 mg·L-1. The foliar-applied nanoparticles (NPs) had good crystallinity and a mean size distribution under 30 nm. There were significant differences between these two experimental treatments in the leaf surfaces' trichomes diversity, ratio, width, and length at the flower-bud development stage. Somewhat surprisingly, our results established that the ZnO-NPs treatment induced generally better sunflower physiological responses, while the TiO2-NPs primarily affected quantitative and nutritional parameters such as oil content and changed sunflower physiology to early maturation. There were no differences detected in titanium or zinc translocation or accumulation in the fully ripe sunflower seeds compared to the experimental controls, and our positive results therefore encourage further nano-fertiliser research.

Keywords: foliar application; nano-fertilisers; nanoparticles; sunflower; titanium dioxide; zinc oxide.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic experimental field plant in aerial view.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Schematic model of sunflower growth stages. While the red arrows indicate the foliar application of TiO2-NPs or ZnO-NPs, the green arrows indicate time intervals for measuring physiological parameters; normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), photochemical reflectance index (PRI) and crop water stress index (CWSI) for the assessment of sunflower development.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) Scanning electron microscopy of TiO2-NPs, (b) X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that TiO2-NPs have anatase (A) and rutile (R) polymorphic modification.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Representative scanning electron image of sunflower leaf surface with non-glandular trichomes (NGTs) and linear glandular trichomes (LGTs) in both NPs-treated variants and the control—(a) leaf surface, (b) trichome detail.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Comparison of total titanium (a) and zinc (b) concentrations in the kernel and hulls of fully-ripe sunflower seeds after foliar application of titanium dioxide, zinc oxide nanoparticle variants and the control.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Monthly seasonal variations in the 2018 vegetation season at the Dolná Malanta experimental research field in Nitra in the Slovak Republic; (a) air temperature, (b) sunshine hours and (c) precipitation.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Analysed 2018 seasonal effects of sunflower foliar-sprayed titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles variants associated with the following physiological indices and compared to the control; (a) normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), (b) photochemical reflectance index (PRI) and (c) crop water stress index (CWSI), the significance: * P value < 0.05, ** P value < 0.01.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Jiang W., Mashayekhi H., Xing B. Bacterial toxicity comparison between nano- and micro-scaled oxide particles. Environ. Pollut. 2009;157:1619–1625. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2008.12.025. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Li C., Wang P., Van Der Ent A., Cheng M., Jiang H., Read T.L., Lombi E., Tang C., De Jonge M.D., Menzies N.W., et al. Absorption of foliar-applied Zn in sunflower (Helianthus annuus): Importance of the cuticle, stomata and trichomes. Ann. Bot. 2018;123:57–68. doi: 10.1093/aob/mcy135. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jaberzadeh A., Moaveni P., Moghadam H.R.T., Zahedi H. Influence of Bulk and Nanoparticles Titanium Foliar Application on some Agronomic Traits, Seed Gluten and Starch Contents of Wheat Subjected to Water Deficit Stress. Not. Bot. Horti Agrobot. Cluj-Napoca. 2013;41:201–207. doi: 10.15835/nbha4119093. - DOI
    1. Kouhi S.M.M., Lahouti M., Ganjeali A., Entezari M.H. Comparative phytotoxicity of ZnO nanoparticles, ZnO microparticles, and Zn2+ on rapeseed (Brassica napus L.): Investigating a wide range of concentrations. Toxicol. Environ. Chem. 2014;96:861–868. doi: 10.1080/02772248.2014.994517. - DOI
    1. Pištora J., Vlček J., Lesňák M., Blažek D., Kolenčík M. Optical Methods in Diagnostics of Nanostructured Materials. 1st ed. Akademické nakladatelství CERM; Brno-Královo Pole, Czech Republic: 2015.

LinkOut - more resources