Intelligent Nano-Fertilizers

Intelligent Nano-Fertilizers

The plant needs different amount of nitrogen depending on its growth stage. Nitrogen-use efficiency for most crops ranges from 30 to 50 percent. A new generation of fertilizers will increase this efficiency from 30 percent to upwards of 80 percent. Smart biosensors and smart delivery systems will help in enhancing productivity in agriculture. Intelligent nano-fertilizers can reduce the amount of nitrogen lost during the crop production. 

http://www.biotecharticles.com/Nanotechnology-Article/Intelligent-Nano-Fertilizers-3544.html

Intelligent Nano-Fertilizers

Intelligent Nano-Fertilizers

The plant needs different amount of nitrogen depending on its growth stage. Nitrogen-use efficiency for most crops ranges from 30 to 50 percent. A new generation of fertilizers will increase this efficiency from 30 percent to upwards of 80 percent. Smart biosensors and smart delivery systems will help in enhancing productivity in agriculture. Intelligent nano-fertilizers can reduce the amount of nitrogen lost during the crop production. 

http://www.biotecharticles.com/Nanotechnology-Article/Intelligent-Nano-Fertilizers-3544.html

Agricultural Biotechnology

Biotechnology refers generally to the application of a wide range of scientific techniques to the modification and improvements of plants, animals, and microorganisms that are of economic importance. Agricultural biotechnology is that area of biotechnology involving application to agriculture. In the broadest sense, traditional biotechnology has been used for thousand of years, since the advent of the first agricultural practices, for the improvement of plants, animals and microorganisms. The application of biotechnology to agriculturally important crop species has traditionally involved the use of selective breeding to bring about an exchange of genetic material between two parent plants to produce offspring having desired traits such as increase yield, disease resistance and enhanced product quality. The exchange of genetic material through conventional breeding requires that the two plants being crossed are of the same, or closely related species and so it can take considerable time to achieve desired results. Modern biotechnology vastly increase the precision and reduces the time with which these changes in plant characteristics can be made and greatly increase the potential sources from which desirable traits can be obtained.

Nanotechnology: Applications in Agriculture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNMCbdmHvaE

Nanotechnology : Applications in Agriculture (PowerPoint Presentation)

NanotechnologyAgriculture

Smart Nanofertilizers for Agriculture

Smart Nanofertilizers

Mineral nutrients  such as nitrogen, phosphorous potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulphur, and other micronutrients are essential for plant growth and crop production.  Presently, we face a glaring contrast of insufficient use of nutrients on one hand and excessive use on another. Nutrients Use efficiency (NUE) represents a key indicator to assess progress towards better nutrient management. Fertilizers are chemical compounds applied to promote plant growth. It is applied either through the soil or by foliar feeding. Artificial fertilizers are inorganic fertilizers formulated in approximate concentration to supply the nutrients. Nitrogen is an important source which is essential for the growth of plant. Urea is the most wildly used water soluble plant nitrogen source. Due to leaching the nitrogen content in the soil get decreased leading to low nitrogen utilization efficiency.

Nitrogen-use efficiency for most crops ranges from 30 to 50 percent, so researchers are developing intelligent nano-fertilizers to reduce the amount of nitrogen lost during the crop production.  The plant needs different amount of nitrogen depending on its growth stage. A new generation of fertilizers will increase this efficiency from 30 percent to upwards of 80 percent. The idea is to develop a product that will release nitrogen only when the plant needs it and in the amount the plant needs. The plants communicate their surroundings environment by producing all kinds of chemical signals. A plant synthesizes specific compounds to communicate with specific microbes. The microbes then go to work and free nitrogen that the plant uses to grow. Thus, roots send out signal that ask microbes to transform nitrogen in the soil into a chemical form the plant can use. Many chemical compounds that are associated  with nitrogen uptake have been identified. These compounds can be used to synchronize the release of fertilizer with nitrogen uptake by the crop. 

A biosensor is a device that combines a biological recognition element with a physical or chemical transducer to detect a biological product. In other words, it is a probe that integrates a biological one with an electronic component to yield a measurable signal. Several biosensors are being developed for different applications. Typically a biosensor consists of three components: the biological recognition element, the transducer and the signal processing electronics. Nano-biosensors that will bind to these compounds can be developed so as to control of the release of fertilizers. The polymers coatings that protects the fertilizers from the elements contains nano-sized biosensors which are made up of very specific chemical compounds that allow the fertilizers to be released into the soil when the plant needs it. These biosensors know when to release nitrogen because they are able to detect chemical signals released from the roots of the plant to the soil. Biosensors can detect when a plant requires more nitrogen and allow microbes access to the fertilizer-nitrogen inside the polymer protected particles. 

Each plant species sends out its own variety of chemical signals. Keeping this concept in mind, a smart nano-fertilizer product could be tailored to respond differently to the needs of different crops. For instance, the nitrogen particles could be designated to become available to wheat, but not to the canola growing in the same field because of different compounds emitted by different crops. We can prepare different biosensors using different compounds and tailor the fertilizers to each different crop for different climatic zones and soils. Dr. Carlos Montreal of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa is one of the several research scientists developing a fertilizer that responds to organic compounds emitted by a plant’s roots. The research team is trying to make  intelligent fertilizers with the biodegradable three-dimensional polymer coating less than 100 nm  thick. Hence, in coming years farmers could have access to an intelligent nano-fertilizers  that synchronizes the release of nitrogen with crop uptake.

Smart and Intelligent Nano-Fertilizers

Nanotechnology for developing smart and intelligent Nano-Fertilizers. 

http://www.biotecharticles.com/Nanotechnology-Article/Intelligent-Nano-Fertilizers-3544.html

Nanotechnology in Agriculture : Future Prospective

Nanotechnology  in Agriculture

The use of nanomaterials for delivery of pesticides and fertilizers is explored to reduce the dosage and ensure controlled slow delivery but the risk assessment of the use of nanomaterials is still not defined. Toxicity of the ecosystem, potential residue carry-over in foodstuff and nanomaterials phytotoxicity are some of the major concern for application of nanomaterials in agriculture. The health concern of nanomaterials has been reviewed . There is need to evaluate the toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics of nanomaterials used in agricultural production. Nanomaterials owing to increased surface area might have toxic effects that are not apparent in the bulk materials especially in open agricultural ecosystem. The selection of nanomaterials for application in the field may be critical as materials which are non-toxic, biodegradable and biocompatible are desirable. Nanofabrication with hyper-accumulator plant or in combination with soil microorganism will provide the approach of “Designer plant” boosting up the nutrient uptake and phytomining efficiency.  This can be achieved in future by nano-biofarming or particle farming. This is one such field which yields nanoparticles for industrial use by growing plants in defined soil.

Smart precision farming will make use of computers, global satellite positioning system and remote sensing devices to measure highly localized environmental conditions enabling us to know whether crops are growing at maximum efficiency. Nanotechnology may be developed and deployed for real-time monitoring of the crop growth and field conditions including moisture level, soil fertility, temperature, crop nutrient status, insects, plant diseases, weeds. Networks of wireless nanosensors positioned across cultivated fields will provide essential data leading to best agronomic intelligence processes with the aim to minimize resource inputs and maximize output.

Humidity, light temperature, soil conditions, fertilization, insects, and plant diseases all affect the release of volatile organic compounds which could be detected by electronic nose. Electronic noses in agriculture will detect crop diseases, identify insect infestation, and monitor food quality. The electronic nose could also be used in food industry to assess the freshness spoilage of fruits and vegetables during the processing and packaging process. Smart dust technology will be used for monitoring various parameters such as temperature, humidity, insect and disease infestation in future. This is the future of agriculture, an army of nanosensors will be scattered like dust across the farms and fields, working like the eyes, ears and nosed of the farming world. These tiny wireless sensors are capable to communicate the information they sense. These will be programmed and designed to respond various parameters like variation in temperature, nutrients and humidity.

In summary, the development of nanomaterials with good dispersion and wettability, biodegradable in soil, and environment, less toxic and more photo-generative, with well understood toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics, smart and stable, and ease of fabrication and application in agriculture, would be ideal for their effective use in agricultural crop production. 

Nano-Foods

Nanofood is defined as the food derived from the use of nanotechnology techniques or tools during cultivation, production, processing or packaging. After harvesting, crop is processed and then it reaches to consumers in the form of food. One common problem encountered in food sector is that it loses its freshness and quality before reaching to the consumers. Generally food contains bacteria and viruses which ends in illness and sometimes fatality. Nanotechnology can play an important role by designing smart biosensors that can be packed along with the food material. These smart biosensors will warn the consumers about the freshness of the food by colour change indicators. So if there is large concentration of bacteria in a particular food, the biosensor will produce a strong signal indicating the food as unsafe to eat. Biosensors developed on the basis of nanotechnology can detect pathogen in the food matrices. Multifunctional FeO NPs with their surface attached to antibodies can specifically bind to the microorganism can be used for their detection in complex food matrices.

A major problem in food science is determining and developing an effective packaging material. Quality and freshness of food can also be maintained by designing smart packaging materials using nanotechnology to keep the food fresh for longer duration. In addition, many companies are also adding NPs to dietary supplements to enhance their bioavailability and efficacy. Nutraceuticals like lycopene, beta-carotene, lutein, phytosterols, have been incorporated into nanosize self-assembled liquid structures to deliver nutrients to cells. Food and cosmetic companies are working together to develop new mechanism to deliver vitamins directly to the skin.

Nanotechnology may provide solutions to nanoscale biosensors for pathogen detection and to delivery systems for bioactive ingredients in foodstuffs through improved knowledge of food material and their uptake at the nanoscale. Consumers need to be aware of the risk that nanofood may suffer the destiny as genetically modified (GM) crops. Products developed by using nanotechnology are flooding the market in food industry. But there are no specific rules and regulations to check their risks.

A number of factors contribute to a demand for the traceability of food throughout production, processing, distribution and consumption. Nanotechnology based tracing devices can integrate multiple functional devices that provide other important information such as sensors for detection of the presence of pathogens, spoilage microorganism, allergen, chemicals, and other contaminants in food as well as nutritional information. Nanoscale tagging devices can be used to record and retrieve information about the product history. These types of applications will help producers, retailers and consumers regarding food safety. 

Nano-Biosensors

    A biosensor is a device that combines a biological recognition element with a physical or chemical transducer to detect a biological product. In other words, it is a probe that integrates a biological one with an electronic component to yield a measurable signal. Several biosensors are being developed for different applications. Typically a biosensor consists of three components: the biological recognition element, the transducer and the signal processing electronics and functions at five different levels:

•        Bioreceptor that bind the specific form to the sample
•       Electrochemical interface where specific biological processes occur giving rise to a         signal
•       A transducer that converts the specific biochemical reaction in an electrical signal
•       A signal processor for converting the electronic signal into a meaningful physical            parameter 
•       A proper interface to display the results to the operator

    Various nanomaterials have been used in biosensors technology to produce nanobiosensors. Various nanomaterials are implemented either into transducers or receptors operation parts, so as to enhance their multidetection capability and sensitivity. These nanomaterials are nanoparticles, nanotubes, quantum dots (QDs) or other biological nanomaterials. These nanomaterials can contribute to either the bio-recognition element or the transducer or both, of a biosensor. Nanoparticles-based biosensor are particularly attractive because they can be easily synthesized in bulk using standard chemical techniques. Biosensors may be classified according to the mechanism of biological selectivity (bioreceptor) otherwise, on the mode of physiochemical signal transduction (transducer). Bioreceptor is a molecular species that exploits a biochemical mechanism of recognition. They are accountable for binding the concerned analyte to the sensor for measurement. Bioreceptor can broadly be classified into five distinct classes. These classes comprise antibody-antigen bioreceptor, enzymatic bioreceptor, nucleic acids (DNA) bioreceptor, cellular bioreceptor, biometric bioreceptor and bactriophage bioreactor. The transducer plays a crucial part in the detection and identification process of a biosensor. The transduction methods such as optical, electrochemical and mass based are the most favored and universal method.

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is a robust tool that can measure the binding kinetics of two molecules without the help of any fluorescent tag. Thus, this technique can be said as peculiarity that appears during optical illumination of a metal surface and can be adopted for biomolecular interaction analysis. The advantages affiliated with this are that it takes less time to detect binding events since it is label-free, it excluded additional reagents, assays and steps. Aptamers are those which work with the principle of target specific binding with high affinity, they are single stranded nucleic acid, they fit for the target in all the way forming three dimensional with strict bonding can be produced in vitro.  This kind of nanosensors gives more specific and effective detecting plant diseases, crop resistance and yield production.

Smart dusts are the devices made up of micro sized electro chemical sensors contained in it.  It works on three principles, sensing, processing and computing. This technology gains popularity in a way of its operations. It can be monitored with wireless radios, transducer irrespective of location of sensor, its size is very small due to which it can be undetectable. Major power of sensing itself to the environmental changes, automation and computing has made it come to greater extent. Smart dust technology could be used for monitoring various parameters such as temperature, humidity, insect and disease infestation, but still there are major drawbacks faced by this technology like the impact on environment, toxicity.

             Electronic nose (E-nose) consists of an array of gas sensors  which are composed of NPs e.g. ZnO nanowires with a broad and partly overlapping selectivity and an electronic pattern recognition system with multivariate statistical data processing tools. Their resistance changes with the passage of the certain gas and generate a change in electrical signal that form the fingerprint pattern for gas detection. This pattern is used to determine the type, quality, and quantity of the volatile organic compounds being detected. Plants release volatile organic compounds as a byproduct of everyday physiological processes and these specific compounds and the quantities release are indicative of both the crop and field conditions. 

Nano-Pesticides and Nano-Herbicides

Nanotechnology has potential for efficient delivery of chemical and biological pesticides using  nanosized preparations or nanomaterials based agrochemical formulations. The active ingredient is adsorbed, attached, encapsulated or entrapped unto or into the nano-matrix. Controlled release of the active ingredient is achieved due to the slow release characteristics of the nanomaterials, bonding of the ingredients to the material and the environmental conditions. The benefits of NMs based formulations are the improvement of efficacy due to higher surface area, higher solubility, higher mobility and lower toxicity due to elimination of organic solvents. Nanopesticides involve either very small particles of pesticidal active ingredients or other small engineered structure with useful pesticidal properties. Nanopesticides can increase the dispersion and wettability of agricultural formulations and unwanted pesticide movement. Nanomaterials and biocomposites exhibit useful properties such as stiffness, thermal stability, solubility, permeability, crystallity and biodegradability needed for formulating  nanopesticide.  Nanopesticides also offer large specific surface area and hence increased affinity to the target. Nanoemulsions, nanoencapsulates, nanocontainers and nanocages are some of the nanopesticides delivery techniques that have been discussed recently. Nanopesticides delivery techniques have the ability to control or delayed delivery, absorption and more effective and environmentally friendly approach. Currently spraying of pesticides involves wither knapsacks that deliver large droplets associated with splash loss or ultralight volume sprayer for controlled droplet application with smaller droplets causing spray drift. Constraints due to droplet size may be overcome by using NP encapsulated or nanosized pesticides that will contribute to efficient spraying and reduction of spray drift and splash losses. 

Basically, the nano-formulation should degrade faster in the soil and slowly in plants with residue level below the regulatory criteria in food stuff. The sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) is used to increase the photo-degradation of the nanoparticles in soil. The SDS modified Ag/TiO₂ imidacloprid nanoformulation has been developed using a microencapsulation technique that used chitosan and alginate. Formulation stability is also an important aspect at the nano level.  A stable nanopesticide (bifenthrin) using polymer stabilizer such as Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), Polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH), and Poly(acrylic acid)-b-poly(butyacrylate (PAA-b-PBA) has been formulated successfully.

Plants provide a non-toxic source of molecules with proven biological efficacy that are usually non-persistent in fresh water and soil. However, phytochemcials such as secondary metabolites and essential oils face problems of stability and cost effectiveness. Incorporation of Artemisia arborescens essential oil into solid lipid NPs (200-204 nm) reduced the rapid evaporation of essential oil. Amorphous nanosilica is obtained from various sources such as the shell wall of phytoplankton, volcanic soil, displayed promising potential as a biopesticide. Nano-silica may be useful against stored grain, household pests, fungal organism, worms etc.

Bacteria, viruses and fungi can function as biological control agents against insect pests. Bacterial and viral formulations need to be ingested by the host and are susceptible to desiccation, heat and UV inactivation. The use of nano-formulations may offer new ways to enhance the stability of these biological agents. Mycopesticides or fungal biocontrol agents are promising as they act by contact and do not need ingestion, can be easily mess produced, and are relatively specific. Microbial products such as enzymes, inhibitor, antibiotics and toxins are promising as biopesticides against plant pests and pathogens. The insecticidal properties of bacterial toxins (Bt) are well known. However, microbial products need stabilization and directed delivery mechanism towards identified targets. Chitosan or clay as stabilizing and delivery agents have potential of biocompatible and biodegradable nanomaterials.

Unwanted plants along with the desired plant crops are called weeds. To kill these weeds, herbicides are used but conventional herbicide when sprayed has a chance of getting affected to the foods crops too by this and there can be huge loss in the crop yield. By using nano herbicide which is 1-100 nm range will try to mingle with the soil particle and try to destroy the entire weeds from their roots by not affecting other food crops. As the nanoparticles are target specific they can be used to kill the weeds and destroy it to get better yield. Herbicides like atrazine, triazine could be encapsulated to get efficient release to the plants.

 

Nano-Fertilizers and Nano-Biofertilizers

Much of the fertilizers are unavailable to plants as they are lost as run-off causing pollution. Localized application of large amount of fertilizer, in the form of ammonium salts, urea and nitrate or phosphate compounds are harmful. Nanomaterials have potential contribution in slow release of fertilizers. Fertilizers with sulphur nanocoatings are useful slow release fertilizers. In addition to sulphur nanocoatings or encapsulation of urea and phosphate and their release will be beneficial to meet the soil and crop demands. Other nanomaterials with potential applications include kanolin and polymeric biocompatible NPs. We can use biodegradable, polymeric chitosan NPs for controlled release of the NPK fertilizer sources such as urea, calcium phosphate and potassium chloride. Biofertilizers are live formulations of beneficial microorganism such as the fungal mycorrhizae, plant growth promoting rhizobacteria  Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azosprillum and blue green algae, phosphate solubilizing bacterial Pseudomonas sp and Bacillus sp. Some constraints in their widespread usage are short shelf life, lack of suitable carrier materials, susceptibility to high temperature, problems in transportation and storage.  Potential application of polymeric NPs are for coating of biofertilzer preparations to yield formulations that are resistant to desiccation. Micronutrients promote optimum plant growth. Supplementation of soil with micronutrients trapped in NMs for their slow release would promote plant growth and soil health. 

NANOTECHNOLOGY IN AGRICULTURE

Crop production and growth severely decrease under stress. Environmental stress conditions such as drought, heat, salinity, cold or pathogen infection can have a devastating impact on plant growth and yield. As traditional approach for crop improvement reach their limits, agriculture has to adopt novel approaches such as nanotechnology to meet the demand of an ever-growing world population. Precision farming has been a long-derived goal to maximize output (i.e. crop yield) while minimize inputs (i.e. fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides etc.) through monitoring environmental variables and applying targeted action. One application of nanotechnology in agriculture addresses low use efficiency of inputs. Controlled release mechanisms via nanoscale carriers avoids temporal overdose, reduce the amount of agricultural chemicals used and minimize input and waste.

Nanosensors are devices that respond to environmental conditions converting them to a useful form of information.  They are capable of detecting very small amounts of contaminants, nutrients, pests and even stress caused by drought, temperature and nutrient deficiencies or pathogen presence. This detection engages nano delivery systems that deliver nutrients to crops with high precision. Smart precision farming makes use of computers, global satellite positioning system (GPS) and remote sensing devices to measure highly localized environmental. Networks of wireless nanosensors positioned throughout cultivated fields guarantee real-time monitoring of the crop growth provide essential data leading to better agronomic practices. Nanotechnology may be developed and deployed for real-time monitoring of the crop growth and field conditions including moisture level, soil fertility, temperature, crop nutrient status, insects, plant diseases, weeds. Networks of wireless nanosensors positioned across cultivated fields provide essential data leading to best agronomic intelligence processes with the aim to minimize resource inputs and maximize output and yield. Smart sensors and smart delivery systems will help in enhancing productivity in agriculture by providing accurate information and thus help maintaining farms and fields with precise control and report timely needs of crops; and consequently helping farmer to make better decision.

               The potential applications and main key focus areas for nanotechnology in agricultural research are:

     ·     Slow release of nanomaterials-assisted fertilizers, biofertilizers           and   micronutrients for efficient use
·      Delivery of nanocides i.e. pesticides encapsulated nanomaterials           for control release,
·        Stabilization of biopesticides with nanomaterials,
·        Agricultural diagnostics,
·        Water retention,
·        Nano-genetic manipulation of agricultural crops,
·        Nano-biosensors,
·        Nano-biofarming.

Nanotechnology: A Brief Introduction

The term ‘Nanotechnology’ was first defined in 1974 by Norio Taniguchi of the Tokyo Science University as the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. The definition of nanotechnology is based on the prefix ‘nano’ which is from the Greek word meaning ‘dwarf’. Technically the word ‘nano’ means one billionth of something. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. The word nanotechnology is generally used when referring to materials with the size of 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). Nanotechnology is a new branch of science that deals with the generation and alteration of materials to nanosize. Materials with a particle size less than 100 nm at least in one dimension are generally classified as nanomaterials. These materials display different properties from bulk materials due to their size. These differences include physical strength, chemical reactivity, electrical conductance, magnetism and optical effects. Therefore, nanotechnology is the manipulation or self-assembly of individual atoms or molecule or molecular cluster into structures to create materials and devices with new or vastly different properties. Nanosensors and monitoring system enabled by nanotechnology will have a large impact on future precision methodologies. Hence, nanotechnology employs materials (NPs) having one or more dimension in the order of 100 nm or less.

Nanomaterials (NMs) of inorganic and organic origin are used for nanoparticles (NPs) synthesis by a variety of physical and chemical methods. The techniques for making nanoparticles are generally involved either a top-down approach or a bottom-up approach. In top-down approach, size reduction is achieved by various chemical and physical treatments such as milling, high pressure homogenization and sonication while in bottom-up synthesis, the nanostructure building blocks of the nanoparticles are formed first and then assembled to produce the final particle.

Among inorganic materials, metal oxide nanoparticles such as ZnO, TiO_2, AgO, MgO are of particular interest as they are physically and optically stable with tunable optical properties. Metallic nanomaterials are very interesting materials with unique electronic and electrocatalytic properties depending on their size and morphology and include the utilization of nanostructured materials with specific forms like quannologytum dots (QDs). Other inorganic materials such as montmorillionite and other clay nanoparticles have a structure of stacked platelets with one dimension of the platelet in the nanometer scale. Nano-clays have a high aspect ratio that provide more interactive surface when exfoliated and dispersed well. Organic materials such as carbon nanotubes, lipids and polymers are versatile materials with multiple applications.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are hollow cylindrical tubes composed of one, two or several concentric graphite layers capped by fullerenic hemisphere, which are referred to as single-, double-, and multi-walled CNTs. The unique electronic, metallic and structural characteristics make CNTs an important class of materials. The possibility of electron transfer reaction due to their structure dependent metallic character and their high surface area provides ground for unique biochemical sensing system. Solid lipid nanoparticles are delivery systems that comprise of aqueous dispersion of solid lipids or dry powder such as triglycerides, steroids, waxes, long chain fatty acids and emulsifiers prepared by high pressure homogenization. Polymeric nanoparticles made from natural and synthetic polymers by wet synthetic routes are widely used due to their stability and ease of surface modification. Nanoparticles prepared from biopolymers or natural sources possess merits such as available from replenishable agricultural (cellulose, starch, pectin) or marine (chitin and chitosan) resources, biocompatibility, biodegradability and other ecological safety. Chitosan is one of the most promising NMs due to its excellent biocompatibility, complete biodegradiability and non-tixic nature. The degradation products of chitosan are harmless natural metabolites. It is obtained by the deacetylation of chitin, the second most abundant natural polymer after cellulose, which is found in the shells of crustaceans (crabs and shrimp), the cuticles of insects, and the cell walls of fungi. It is suitable for electrochemical sensors due to its transparent nature. Quantum dots (QDs) are inorganic nanocrystals, approximately 1-100 nm in size, with unique properties of broad excitation, narrow size-tunable emission spectra, high photochemical stability and negligible photoleaching. They have been widely used, mainly as alternative to fluorophores,  for the development of optical biosensors to detect ions, organic compounds and biomolecules such as nucleic acids, proteins, amino acids, enzymes, carbohydrates.  Dendrimers are known as organic macromolecules with tridimensional (3D) and highly defined structure functionality. The capability of these dendrimeric structures to stabilize and maintain the integrity of metallic nanoparticles has been reported.

Nanoparticles are generally characterized by their size, shape surface area, and disparity. The common techniques of characterizing nanoparticles are scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV-visible spectrophotometery, X-ray diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS).

Some nanomaterials and their applications

Nanomaterials

Applications

Inorganic Metal nanoparticles           AgO, TiO2, ZnO, CeO2; Fe2O3,          FePd, Fe-Ni; Silica; CdTe, CdSe   Clay         Montmorillonite layerd double hydroxides Organic  Carbon nanotubes,           nanofibres  Lipids       Liposomes       Lippolyplexes       Solid lipid nanoparticles Poymeric       Natural         Cellulose, Starch, Gelatin, Albumin         Chitin, Chitosan      Synthetic        Dendrimers        Polyethylene oxide        Polyethylene  glycol        Polylactides

Delivery of biomolecules (proteins, peptides, nucleic acids), biosensors, diagnostic techniques, pesticide degradation Delivery of pesticides, fertilizers, plant growth promoting hormones Biocatalysts, sensing, Delivery of DNA  and pesticides, essential oils Biocompatible, biodegradable Delivery of DNA/RNA Delivery of pesticides and DNA/RNA

Nanotechnology in Agriculture

The ‘First Green Revolution ‘ during 1970’s targeted to the four basic elements systems namely, semidwarf high yielding varieties of wheat and rice, extensive use of irrigation, fertilizers and agro-chemicals resulting in terrific increase in the agricultural production. However, the agricultural production is experiencing a plateau nowadays. Agriculture is always the backbone of many developing countries and facing a wide spectrum of challenges such as stagnation in crop yields, low nutrient use efficiency, multi-nutrient deficiencies, climate change, shrinkable arable land, water availability, shortage of labors.  There is a need of explore one of the frontier technologies such as ‘Nanotechnology’ to precisely detect and deliver the correct quantity of nutrients and pesticides to increase crop production and conservation of inputs. Precision farming has been a long-derived goal to maximize output (i.e. crop yield) while minimize inputs (i.e. fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides etc.) through monitoring environmental variables and applying targeted action.

Nanotechnology is now emerging and fast growing field of science which is being exploited over a wide range of discipline such as chemistry, physics, biology, material science, electronics, energy, medicines health sector and environment. Nanotechnology and applications derived from using nanotechnologies are of interest to agriculture to help address the issues of sustainable agricultural inputs and improving productivity and food and water safety. Nanotechnology have many applications in all stages of production, processing, storing, packaging and transport of agricultural products. Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionise  the agricultural sector with new tools for the molecular treatment of disease detection, rapid disease detection, enhancing the ability of plants to absorb nutrients etc. In fact, there is a need of ‘Second Green Revolution’.