Abstract
Leaf cuticle sorption is one important process for the uptake of environment pollutants in plants, and mixed powder including adaxial and abaxial cuticle is generally used to demonstrate the sorption behavior. However, the difference of adaxial and abaxial cuticle on plant cuticle sorption is not well understood. Abaxial cuticle (PAC) and adaxial cuticle (PBC) were isolated from hypostomatic Photinia serrulata to investigate their adsorption of a model radionuclide (strontium). The elemental composition and FTIR spectra for two cuticles were quite similar and both show high affinity (H/C, 1.59 and 1.65) and polarity ((O + N)/C, 0.470 and 0.499). Both adsorption isotherms fit well with Langmuir model (R2, 0.97 and 0.97), and the maximum adsorption capacity of PAC was 12.1 mg/g, little higher than that of PBC (10.3 mg/g). Adsorption of strontium increased with the increase of pH, and the maximum was attained when pH ≥4. Electrostatic attraction was demonstrated to be the main mechanism of -strontium adsorption onto PAC and PBC, and the similar adsorption of adaxial and abaxial cuticle was consistent with their similar isoelectric point.
Highlights
With the rapid development of global industrialization, especially the exacerbation of the energy crisis, nuclear energy has undergone dramatic progress
The adaxial cuticle was slightly wrinkled with bumps of waxy crystal, while protruding stomata was irregularly spread of on the surface of abaxial cuticle
The similar adsorption capacity of cuticle and plant tissue in references indicated that both adaxial and abaxial cuticles don’t play a negative role on the absorption of nuclides which was usually considered to be a barrier for the foliar uptake of pollutants
Summary
With the rapid development of global industrialization, especially the exacerbation of the energy crisis, nuclear energy has undergone dramatic progress. Primarily via root and foliar uptakes, is the beginning of the transmission of nuclides in the food chain, and an important route of human and animal exposure to radionuclides [4,5,6]. Found that, within one year after nuclear leak, the nuclides in the bodies of plants were mostly absorbed via foliar uptake rather root uptake. For some radionuclides (e.g., 131 I and 125 I), the non-root uptake is a primary and even the only channel to enter the plants. One month after the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, the absorbed radiation level in plants 35 km away was 10 times higher than that in the soil
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