Committee Chair

Palchoudhury, Soubantika

Committee Member

Arabshahi, Abdollah; Santiago, Manuel

Department

Dept. of Civil and Chemical Engineering

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for food and bioenergy crops for growing world population. Conventional fertilizers used for increasing agricultural production are required to be added to the soil in high quantity and have a slow absorption rate in plants. In comparison engineered nanoparticles can be highly attractive as fertilizers as their small size will allow faster absorption. In particular, iron oxide-based nanoparticles will be highly promising as Fe-deficiency fertilizers because iron is required for photosynthesis in plants. We have synthesized iron oxide and hybrid iron oxide as nanoparticle fertilizers to study the significance on root growth of five different seeds: Pisum sativum L, Cicer arientinum, Vigna radiate, and Phaseolus vulgaris. We found iron oxide nanoparticles at low concentration (5.54x10-3 mgL-1 Fe) significantly increased root growth, compared to other growth solutions. This study will be highly useful for increasing agricultural production.

Acknowledgments

I would first like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Soubantika Palchoudhury, for continuous support of my master’s education and research work, and for her immense knowledge, patience, and encouragement. I would also like to thank the experts Dr. Abdollah Arabshahi and Dr. Manuel Santiago, who were involved as thesis committee members; without their support, guidance and proper direction, this research work could not have been successfully conducted. This work was performed, in part, at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science by Los Alamos National Laboratory (Contract DE-AC52-06NA25396) and Sandia National Laboratories (Contract DE-NA-0003525). I would like to acknowledge the assistance of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Research reported in this publication was partially supported by the 2017 Center of Excellence for Applied Computational Science competition. This work was also partially supported by the Tennessee Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners (TBAEE) Laboratory Equipment Grant for Chemical Engineering Award and Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) User Proposal Award, #2016BU0031. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents and to my friends for giving me endless support and encouragement throughout my study. Thank you.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2018

Subject

Environmental chemistry; Nanotechnology; Iron oxides -- Environmental aspects

Keyword

Iron oxide nanoparticles; Hybrid Pt-iron oxide nanoparticles; Root growth; Microscopy; Engineered nanoparticle fertilizers

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

vii, 47 leaves

Language

English

Rights

https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Date Available

11-1-2018

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