Activated-carbon-filled agarose hydrogel as a natural medium for seed germination and seedling growth

Int J Biol Macromol. 2021 Feb 19:S0141-8130(21)00376-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2021.02.097. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTAn activated-carbon-filled agarose (Agar-AC) hydrogel containing various concentrations of activated carbon (AC) was successfully fabricated through a simple solvent cast technique. Compared to pure agarose hydrogels, Agar-AC hydrogels exhibited excellent mechanical properties, good thermal stability and a highly developed pore structure. The Agar-AC hydrogels also showed a certain degree of improvement in water retention performance, while their swelling ratio decreased with the addition of AC. The incorporation of AC did not influence the crystallinity of the agarose hydrogel, and no chemical modification occurred according to XRD and FTIR. In rapeseed seed germination experiments, the growth indexes of rapeseed, including the germination percentage, root length, stem length, fresh weight and dry weight, were enhanced by the incorporation of a suitable amount of AC. These results indicated that AC has great potential to enhance the properties of agarose hydrogels and improve seed germination and plant growth, which implies that Agar-AC hydrogels can be used as natural materials for agricultural applications.PMID:33617906 | DOI:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2021.02.097
Source: International Journal of Biological Macromolecules - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Source Type: research