Abstract
Reports about the influence of cerium-oxide nanoparticles (nCeO2) on plants are contradictory due to their positive and negative effects on plants. Surface modification may affect the interaction of nCeO2 with the environment, and hence its availability to plants. In this study, the uncoated and glucose-, levan-, and pullulan-coated nCeO2 were synthesized and characterized. The aim was to determine whether nontoxic carbohydrates alter the effect of nCeO2 on the seed germination, plant growth, and metabolism of wheat and pea. We applied 200 mgL−1 of nCeO2 on plants during germination (Ger treatment) or three week-growth (Gro treatment) in hydroponics. The plant response to nCeO2 was studied by measuring changes in Ce concentration, total antioxidative activity (TAA), total phenolic content (TPC), and phenolic profile. Our results generally revealed higher Ce concentration in plants after the treatment with coated nanoparticles compared to uncoated ones. Considering all obtained results, Ger treatment had a stronger impact on the later stages of plant development than Gro treatment. The Ger treatment had a stronger impact on TPC and plant elongation, whereas Gro treatment affected more TAA and phenolic profile. Among nanoparticles, levan-coated nCeO2 had the strongest and positive impact on tested plants. Wheat showed higher sensitivity to all treatments.
Highlights
The production of cerium-oxide nanoparticles totals around 10,000 metric tons per year, making them one of the most produced metal oxide nanoparticles [1]
The physicochemical characteristics of the synthesized nCeO2 were analyzed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), as well as hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance (1 H) and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (13 C-NMR)
In order to compare the susceptibility of plants in different stages of development to nCeO2, we studied three-week-old plants grown in hydroponics treated with nanoparticles during two different developmental phases: during seed germination (Ger treatment) and seedling growth in hydroponics (Gro treatment)
Summary
The production of cerium-oxide nanoparticles (nCeO2 ) totals around 10,000 metric tons per year, making them one of the most produced metal oxide nanoparticles [1]. Cerium-oxide nanoparticles have become a popular nanomaterial due to their unique redox properties based on their facile transition between Ce3+ and Ce4+ oxidation states [2]. Their use is increasing in the pharmaceutical industry, electronics, cosmetics, paints, fuel additives, and petrochemical processing [3,4,5,6,7]. To improve their solubility, the coating of nCeO2 with different polymers has been performed by many researchers [8,9]. The studies reported on positive and negative effects on different plants of uncoated nCeO2 and nCeO2 coated with various organic compounds are presented in Supplementary Table S1
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