Physicochemical properties and fractal characterizations of the functionalized porous clinoptilolites for controlling alginate delivery in growing cauliflower and leaf mustard

Guofu Yan; Jiawei Zhou; Xueqing Cui; Ming Liu; Shiyang Bai; Jihong Sun; Jie Tang; Kaikai Li; Sa Liu

doi:10.1016/j.plaphy.2024.108694

Physicochemical properties and fractal characterizations of the functionalized porous clinoptilolites for controlling alginate delivery in growing cauliflower and leaf mustard

Plant Physiol Biochem. 2024 May 3:211:108694. doi: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2024.108694. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Guofu Yan¹, Jiawei Zhou¹, Xueqing Cui¹, Ming Liu¹, Shiyang Bai², Jihong Sun³, Jie Tang⁴, Kaikai Li⁴, Sa Liu⁴

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory for Green Catalysis and Separation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China.
² Beijing Key Laboratory for Green Catalysis and Separation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China. Electronic address: sybai@bjut.edu.cn.
³ Beijing Key Laboratory for Green Catalysis and Separation, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China. Electronic address: jhsun@bjut.edu.cn.
⁴ Beijing Leili Marine Bioindustry Inc, Beijing, 100093, China.

PMID: 38714131
DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2024.108694

Abstract

Using natural clinoptilolite (NCP) as a carrier and alginate (Alg)-calcium as an active species, the porous silicon calcium alginate nanocomposite (Alg-Ca-NCP) was successfully fabricated via adsorption-covalence-hydrogen bond. Its structural features and physicochemical properties were detailed investigated by various characterizations. The results indicated that Alg-Ca-NCP presented the disordered lamellar structures with approximately uniform particles in size of 300-500 nm. Specially, their surface fractal evolutions between the irregular roughness and dense structures were demonstrated via the SAXS patterns. The results elucidated that the abundant micropores of NCP were beneficial for unrestricted diffusing of Alg-Ca, which was conducive to facilitate a higher loading and sustainable releasing. The Ca content of leaf mustard treated with Alg-Ca-NCP-0.5 was 484.5 mg/100g on the 21st day, higher than that by water (CK) and CaCl₂ solution treatments, respectively. Meanwhile, the prepared Alg-Ca-NCPs presented the obvious anti-aging effects on peroxidase drought stress of mustard leaves. These demonstrations provided a simple and effective method to synthesize Alg-Ca-NCPs as delivery nanocomposites, which is useful to improve the weak absorption and low utilization of calcium alginate by plants.

Keywords: Cauliflower; Controlled alginate delivery; Fractal structure; Leaf mustard; Natural clinoptilolite.