Pollutant-based onion-like nanocarbons for improving the growth of gram plants

Abstract

The impact of pollutant-based onion-like nanocarbons (ONC) on the growth of common gram (Cicer arietinum) plants is being explored here. ONC were isolated from the pollutant diesel soot, which on oxidative treatment gets converted to water-soluble ONC (wsONC), and were used for the growth of gram plants. It was observed that there was improvement in overall growth of the gram plants having wsONC in comparison with the control set of experiments (without wsONC). The important finding associated with the presented work is that wsONC up to a certain concentration (10 ppm) when supplemented to gram plants imparts an improved growth. Afterward, the growth of the plants was noticed to be decreased, which advocates the dose-dependent properties of wsONC on plant growth. The physical presence of the wsONC nanoparticles inside the roots of treated plants has been examined by scanning electron microscopy.