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Nanotechnology in Agriculture: New Opportunities and Perspectives

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 8176

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
Interests: nanotechnology; phytotechnology; crop science

Special Issue Information

Nowadays agriculture is facing new and many challenges. Concerns for the climate change and the increasing demand for food call for a rapid change of the current food system to a more environmentally friendly one. This opens up new research opportunities and perspectives to promote the transition from the current food system to a new system based on sustainability and focused on increasing the use efficiency of the inputs so to reduce the wastes and the impacts that agriculture has been posing to the environment.

Research in Agriculture has rather recently addressed its attention to nanotechnology and the many potentials that it offers to the crop production and the food system in its entirety. Nanoparticles can deliver nutrients, pesticides and other agrochemicals to plants in a controlled manner, although their effects on the crop and the ecosystem are yet to be fully understood.

With the special issue Nanotechnology in Agriculture: New Opportunities and Perspectives, we welcome scientists to submit their original research articles, reviews and communications in the field of the application of nanotechnology in crop production, from fertilization to crop protection, but also biofortification and production quality control at any level, from lab scale to field scale. Contributions on nanotechnology in agriculture that embrace the concepts of environment protection, circular economy, precision agriculture, sustainable production and agro-ecology are also included within the scope of this Special Issue.

Dr. Guido Fellet
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Keywords

  • Nanofertilizers
  • nanopesticides
  • nanoparticle internalization
  • nanocarriers
  • plant production
  • nanoparticle plant interactions
  • nanotoxicity
  • plant physiology
  • plant-soil interaction
  • biofortification

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 4327 KiB  
Article
Circular Hazelnut Protection by Lignocellulosic Waste Valorization for Nanopesticides Development
by Daniele Schiavi, Riccardo Ronchetti, Veronica Di Lorenzo, Mirko Salustri, Camilla Petrucci, Riccardo Vivani, Stefano Giovagnoli, Emidio Camaioni and Giorgio M. Balestra
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(5), 2604; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12052604 - 2 Mar 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4136
Abstract
Hazelnut represents a relevant agro-food supply chain in many countries worldwide. Several biological adversities threaten hazelnut cultivation, but among them bacterial blight is one of the most feared and pernicious since its control can be achieved only by prevention through the observation of [...] Read more.
Hazelnut represents a relevant agro-food supply chain in many countries worldwide. Several biological adversities threaten hazelnut cultivation, but among them bacterial blight is one of the most feared and pernicious since its control can be achieved only by prevention through the observation of good agricultural practices and the use of cupric salts. The aim of this work was to evaluate the lignocellulosic biomasses obtained from hazelnut pruning and shelling residues as a renewable source of cellulose nanocrystals and lignin nanoparticles and to investigate their antimicrobial properties against hazelnut bacterial blight. Cellulose nanocrystals were obtained through an acid hydrolysis after a chemical bleaching, while lignin nanoparticles were synthesized by a solvent–antisolvent method after an enzymatic digestion. Both collected nanomaterials were chemically and morphologically characterized before being tested for their in vitro and in vivo antibacterial activity and biocompatibility on hazelnut plants. Results indicated the selected biomasses as a promising starting material for lignocellulosic nanocarriers synthesis, confirming at the same time the potential of cellulose nanocrystals and lignin nanoparticles as innovative tools to control hazelnut bacterial blight infections without showing any detrimental effects on the biological development of treated hazelnut plants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanotechnology in Agriculture: New Opportunities and Perspectives)
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15 pages, 4488 KiB  
Article
Preparation and Properties of CO2 Micro-Nanobubble Water Based on Response Surface Methodology
by Bingbing Wang, Xiangjie Lu, Sha Tao, Yanzhao Ren, Wanlin Gao, Xinliang Liu and Bangjie Yang
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(24), 11638; https://doi.org/10.3390/app112411638 - 8 Dec 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2702
Abstract
Carbon dioxide (CO2) enrichment in an agricultural environment has been shown to enhance the efficiency of crop photosynthesis, increasing crop yield and product quality. There is a problem of the excessive use of CO2 gas when the CO2 is [...] Read more.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) enrichment in an agricultural environment has been shown to enhance the efficiency of crop photosynthesis, increasing crop yield and product quality. There is a problem of the excessive use of CO2 gas when the CO2 is enriched for crops, such as soybean and other field crops. Given the application of micro-nanobubbles (MNBs) in agricultural production, this research takes CO2 as the gas source to prepare the micro-nanobubble water by the dissolved gas release method, and the response surface methodology is used to optimize the preparation process. The results show that the optimum parameters, which are the gas–liquid ratio, generator running time, and inlet water temperature for the preparation of CO2 micro-nanobubble water, are 2.87%, 28.47 min, and 25.52 °C, respectively. The CO2 content in the MNB water prepared under the optimum parameters is 7.64 mg/L, and the pH is 4.08. Furthermore, the particle size of the bubbles is mostly 255.5 nm. With the extension of the storage time, some of the bubbles polymerize and spill out, but there is still a certain amount of nanoscale bubbles during a certain period. This research provides a new idea for using MNB technology to increase the content and lifespan of CO2 in water, which will slow the release and increase the utilization of CO2 when using CO2 enrichment in agriculture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nanotechnology in Agriculture: New Opportunities and Perspectives)
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