Source: UNIVERSITY OF MAINE submitted to NRP
FROM PLANTS TO PLANTS: APPLYING CELLULOSE NANOFIBRILS WITH FOLIAR FERTILIZERS TO IMPROVE CROP PRODUCTIVITY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1030300
Grant No.
2023-67022-39752
Cumulative Award Amt.
$298,311.00
Proposal No.
2022-08565
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jun 1, 2023
Project End Date
May 31, 2026
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[A1511]- Agriculture Systems and Technology: Nanotechnology for Agricultural and Food Systems
Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF MAINE
(N/A)
ORONO,ME 04469
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The foliar application of fertilizers is an important practice for sustainable agriculture. Compared to traditional soil-applied fertilizers, foliar-applied fertilizers apply at lower rate, accommodate various soil conditions, and directly address the nutrition needs of plant organs at their growing stage. However, foliar fertilizers experiences runoff and uneven distribution that causes leaf "burn". Cellulose nanofibril (CNF) is an economical and biomass-derived green nanomaterial that possess a "hairy" morphology. We proposed three mechanisms of potential benefits of applying CNF with foliar fertilizers. 1) CNF interact with fertilizer ions and provide a more even distribution of fertilizer particles across leaf surface. 2) CNF-templated fertilizers are smaller in size, therefore, faster in dissolution and absorption. 3) CNF physically entangles with leaf surface features (e.g. trichomes), assisting fertilizer retention. If successful, we can lower the cost of foliar fertilizer practice by reducing the times of spray and fertilizer usage. We may lessen environmental burden caused by over fertilizing. In addition, we can improve the crop productivity by minimizing leaf damage caused by fertilizer "burn". We expect to extrapolate our knowledge of CNF/fertilizer interaction to general agrochemicals, which may greatly benefit the overall agrochemical industry (pesticides, fungicides, herbcides, etc.).
Animal Health Component
60%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
60%
Developmental
10%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
5021120102030%
5110699201070%
Knowledge Area
511 - New and Improved Non-Food Products and Processes; 502 - New and Improved Food Products;

Subject Of Investigation
1120 - Blueberry; 0699 - Trees, forests, and forest products, general;

Field Of Science
2010 - Physics; 1020 - Physiology;
Goals / Objectives
The long-term goal of the proposed work is to use cellulose nanofibril(CNF) as a functional adjuvant in foliar-applied agrochemical formulations for improving plant growth and fruit yield, as well as reducing agrochemical usage. The short-term goal of this project is to understand the interactions among CNF, fertilizers, and plant leaves, and their effect on the growth and fruit yield an exemplary plant (wild blueberry). Our central hypothesis is that CNF, as functional adjuvants, can facilitate nutrient uptake and improve wild blueberry's physiological performance by assisting the dissolution of nutrients, and enhancing the retention of nutrients on leaves. Our supporting objectives are:1) Investigate the effect of CNFon the dissolution of nutrients.2) Study the effect of CNFon the retention of nutrients.3) Field study to quantify the effect of CNF-templated fertilizers on crop productivity.
Project Methods
This project include three major activities. Activity #1. Investigate the effect of CNF on the dissolution of nutrients. To support Activity #1, two subtasks are built. Task 1.1 Study the effect of CNF fineness on the dissolution of nutrients. Three different fineness of CNF will be mechanically mixed with a fertilizer. CNF/nutrient interactions will be analyzed with FTIR and XPS. Fertilizer particle size will be measured in SEM. The fertilizer dissolution behavior will be investigated to understand the role of CNF in fertilizers' dissolution by using UV-Vis spectrophotometer. Task 1.2 Explore how nutrition type affects the dissolution of CNF-templated fertilizers. Other common fertilizers for blueberries will be mixed with CNF in water. The particle size of fertilizers (SEM), the interaction between nutrients and CNF (FTIR), the fertilizer dissolving rate (UV-Vis), as well as the colloidal performance of fertilizer formulations (Malvern Zetasizer 3000), will be analyzed in the same ways as in Task 1.1. Activity #2. Study the effect of CNFs on the retention of nutrients. The wettability and surface energies of Maine wild blueberry leaves of different species will be analyzed. The particle distribution of CNF-templated fertilizers on leaf surfaces will be visualized with SEM. The retention rate of nutrients with or without CNF will be assessed by a UV-vis spectrophotometer. Activity #3. Field study to quantify the effect of CNF-templated fertilizers on crop productivity. A final CNF-templated fertilizer formulation will be selected based on the results from Activity #1 & #2. The fertilizers (with or without CNF) will be sprayed to crop leaves on Blueberry Hill Farm in Jonesboro, ME, USA. Physiological traits, structural traits, crop yield, and berry yield will be recorded and analyzed, including chlorophyll concentration, leaf transpiration rates, photosynthetic rate, stem height, stem diameter, leaf size, berry sugar concentrations, berry firmness, and leaf nutrient concentrations.

Progress 06/01/23 to 05/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:For this year's effort, the target audience was the scientific community and agrochemical industry through 1-on-1 research meetings, a departmental seminar, as well as oral and poster presentations at the 2023 Cellulose Nanomaterials Researchers Forum, Orono, ME. Changes/Problems:The PhD student started on this project 8 months later (1/2024) than expected (5/2023). The project may need an extension at the end of the next reporting cycle. To further understand how fertilizer ions interact with cellulose nanofibril (CNF) of different sizes, an additional task of fertilizer ion adsorption on CNF was added. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided a PhD student with interdisciplinary training. This has included 1) chemical modification CNF, 2) material characterization using scanning electron microscope (SEM), image processing software, UV-Vis and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The Ph.D. candidate holds weekly meetings with the principal investigator to discuss the latest developments in their research and any challenges that have arisen in the course of their experiments. The PI offers prompt and constructive feedback to facilitate the project's advancement. The project also provided one Master student (supported by USDA MAFES) with interdisciplinary training. The student has been trained on measurements of leaf water uptake rate and related physiological performances. The student also got hands-on experience in controlled laboratory experiments. The PI offers prompt and constructive feedback to facilitate the project's advancement. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Results have been disseminated through an on-campus graduate research seminar offered through Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering at UTK. Several 1-on-1 meetings were held with potential agrochemical industrial partners, including Syngenta and SePRO. Preliminary results have also been disseminated to the scientific community through an oraland a poster presentation at the 2023 Cellulose Nanomaterials Researchers Forum in Orono, ME. Presentations: Zhang YJ. 2023 Cellulose Nanomaterials Researchers Forum, Orono, ME. Plants sustain plants: Multiple applications of nanocellulose in agriculture. Rawal S, Cavallaro A, Thapa Sandesh, Xu E, Wang Lu, Li L, Zhang YJ. 2023 Cellulose Nanomaterials Researchers Forum, Orono ME. Effects of Cellulose Nano-fibrils on Foliar Water Uptake of Wild Blueberries and Tomato with Varying Trichome Density. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next period, we plan to complete both dissolution tests and leaf adhesion tests on our CNF-based fertilizer formulations. This will help us finalize a CNF-based fertilizer formulation (CNF size, CNF/fertilizer ratio, CNF modification type and degree) for the field study in next summer on the University of Maine's blueberry farm. Greenhouse studies will also be carried out to test the application of CNF on blueberry plants.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Part of the tasks for Objectives 1 and 2 were performed this year. 1) investigate the effect of CNF on fertilizer adsorption. Our preliminary data showed that CNF can help disperse fertilizer particles on the leaf surface. However, the percentage of CNF-dispersed fertilizer over the entire applied fertilizer amount was unknown. This percentage may be directly related to the adsorption rate of fertilizer on CNF when they are mixed in water. We found that CNF size did not affect the amount of adsorbed fertilizer ions (~16%) at a CNF/fertilizer ratio of 3. A larger CNF/fertilizer ratio gave a higher amount of adsorbed fertilizer ions. We also performed chemical modification on CNF to make it positively charged, aiming at increasing the adsorption rate of fertilizer ions on CNF through changing the CNF/fertilizer ion interactions from dipole-ionic to ionic-ionic. The modification did increase the adsorbed fertilizer ions to a higher level (~21%) at a CNF/fertilizer ratio of 3. Applied techniques included UV-vis and ICP-OES for probing fertilizer concentration in suspension, and SEM imaging to visualize the fertilizer particle size. 2) Study surface charge on the adhesion of CNF-fertilizer suspension droplets on the leaf surface. Since the blueberry leaf surface is relatively hydrophobic, a fertilizer water droplet is less likely to stay on a leaf surface upon spraying. The blueberry leaf surface is slightly negatively charged, modifying CNF surface to be positively charged can be helpful. Positive surface charges were successfully created on CNF. An initial adhesion test visually proved that the modified CNF-fertilizer droplet stuck to a leaf surface upon deposition, while the unmodified CNF-fertilizer droplet rolled away from a leaf tilted 45°.

Publications