Development of electrospun polymer seed coating using synthesised phosphazene derivatives cobalt nanoparticles and polyvinylpyrrolidone

Abstract

The use of nanotechnology in agriculture is the need of the hour as it would open new avenues to improve crop productivity without compromising on the quality and environmental safety. The delivery of fertilizers play an important role in agriculture as nutrient in the soil gets depleted. The improvement in stand establishment by improving the seed quality by seed protection and provision of nutrient would lead to good crop yield. Increase in fertilizer application leads to wastage, leaching and pollution whereas a decrease to offset these problems would lead to low nutrition availability to plants. For this reason controlled release of fertilizers through polymer newlinescaffolds were thought of as a solution but the polymer remnants in the soil would lead to pollution. The process of electrospinning produces nanofibers in the submicron range into which the plant nutrients can be encapsulated and released at required rate. These nanofibers have large surface area and a highly porous network which allows for targeted application and reduction of leaching. On choosing a precise combination of polymer and electrospinning parameters a flawless scaffold can be tailor made, which can release the active ingredient and degrade at the desired rate. In the present work, an attempt was made to use the electrospinning technique to create seed coating with incorporation of nutrients to improve agricultural production. Initially the polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was used as a seed coating material as it is biodegradable, biocompatible, water soluble, and easily electrospinnable. The nutrients chosen were macronutrient nitrogen source (i.e.) urea and micronutrient cobalt source (i.e.) cobalt nanoparticles (Co NPs). newline newline