Carbon-Based Nanomaterials: An Efficient Tool for Improving the Nutritional Quality of Crops

Abstract

One of the essential tasks while practicing agricultural sustainability is maintaining nutrition quality while improving crop growth and production, as nutritional deficiencies within the plants are serious threats that affect human health. In this context, carbon-based nanomaterials (CNMs), including carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon nanofibers (CNFs), graphene, etc., and their metallic, non-metallic composites have great potential to improve crop production as well as nutritional quality due to their significant properties such as high surface polarity, large pore size distribution, translocation, low toxicity, high biocompatibility, and binding at the target site due to opposite polarity. Herein, we discuss the CNMs and their role in improving the nutrition quality of the plant. The participation of CNMs and their composites in several nutrition cycles inside the plant and their working direction have also been discussed in detail. This chapter also summarizes the toxic effects of engineered CNMs in plants and their ultimate development in the nutritional quality of the crop. Comparison of a wide range of CNMs applied to improve the quality of crops production and their nutritional values.KeywordsCarbon-based nanomaterialsPlant growthNutritionCompositeTranslocation