Application of Response Surface Methodology for Optimization of Urea Grafted Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes in Enhancing Nitrogen Use Efficiency and Nitrogen Uptake by Padd Plants

作者：Yatim Norazlina Mohamad; Shaaban Azizah; Dimin Mohd Fairuz; Yusof Faridah; Abd Razak Jeefferie

来源：Journal of Nanotechnology, 2016, 2016: 1250739.

DOI：10.1155/2016/1250739

<jats:p>Efficient use of urea fertilizer (UF) as important nitrogen (N) source in the world’s rice production has been a concern. Carbon-based materials developed to improve UF performance still represent a great challenge to be formulated for plant nutrition. Advanced N nanocarrier is developed based on functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (f-MWCNTs) grafted with UF to produce urea-multiwall carbon nanotubes (UF-MWCNTs) for enhancing the nitrogen uptake (NU) and use efficiency (NUE). The grafted N can be absorbed and utilized by rice efficiently to overcome the N loss from soil-plant systems. The individual and interaction effect between the specified factors of f-MWCNTs amount (0.10–0.60 wt%) and functionalization reflux time (12–24 hrs) with the corresponding responses (NUE, NU) were structured via the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based on five-level CCD. The UF-MWCNTs with optimized 0.5 wt% f-MWCNTs treated at 21 hrs reflux time achieve tremendous NUE up to 96% and NU at 1180 mg/pot. Significant model terms (<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M1"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math>value &lt; 0.05) for NUE and NU responses were confirmed by the ANOVA. Homogeneous dispersion of UF-MWCNTs was observed via FESEM and TEM. The chemical changes were monitored by FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy. Hence, this UF-MWCNTs’ approach provides a promising strategy in enhancing plant nutrition for rice.</jats:p>

• 出版日期2016