New biologically active agents based on carbon and silicon nanostructures: The basis of creation and application in crop production

Abstract

The creation of highly effective environmentally friendly means with a complex positive effect on plants remains an urgent task of modern science. In interdisciplinary studies, it was elaborated the new forms of preparations based on carbon (water-soluble polyhydroxylated, carboxylated and amino acid derivatives of fullerene C60) and silica-sols (1-20 wt.% of tetraethoxysilane - TEOS) nanostructures with the addition of macro-, microelements, and other physiologically active compounds. Effect of these preparations on plant production process under favorable controlled conditions and when modeling oxidative stress caused by UV-B irradiation, deficiency of soil moisture, pesticides, phytopathogens, as well as in natural conditions of Leningrad region was investigated. In researches, the original one-step method was used for the synthesis of fullerene C60 derivatives: fullerenol, tris-malonate fullerene, fullerene with L-amino acids (threonine, hydroxyproline, arginine, methionine, etc.), sol-gel synthesis of TEOS-derived compositions and a new procedure for treating the seeds with them. The methods for growing plants and diagnosing their physiological state according to the optical characteristics of the leaves, standard and generally accepted chemical, biological methods for assessing processes in the soil (soil substitute) - plants system were also applied. The main mechanisms of the positive effect of the created nanocompositions on plants are revealed and the prospects of their application in crop production are shown.