Nanosized Calcium Phosphates as Novel Macronutrient Nano-Fertilizers
Metadatos
Mostrar el registro completo del ítemEditorial
MDPI
Materia
Calcium phosphates Hydroxyapatite ACP Nano-fertilizers Chemical doping
Fecha
2022-08-06Referencia bibliográfica
Carmona, F.J.; Guagliardi, A.; Masciocchi, N. Nanosized Calcium Phosphates as Novel Macronutrient Nano-Fertilizers. Nanomaterials 2022, 12, 2709. [https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12152709]
Patrocinador
Fondazione Cariplo 2016-0648; University of Granada PPJIA2021.20; Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship within the European Union H2020 programme H2020-MSCA-IF-2019-EF-ST-888972-PSustMOFResumen
The need for qualitatively and quantitatively enhanced food production, necessary for
feeding a progressively increasingWorld population, requires the adoption of new and sustainable
agricultural protocols. Among them, limiting the waste of fertilizers in the environment has become
a global target. Nanotechnology can offer the possibility of designing and preparing novel materials
alternative to conventional fertilizers, which are more readily absorbed by plant roots and, therefore,
enhance nutrient use efficiency. In this context, during the last decade, great attention has been
paid to calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CaP), particularly nanocrystalline apatite and amorphous
calcium phosphate, as potential macronutrient nano-fertilizers with superior nutrient-use efficiency
to their conventional counterparts. Their inherent content in macronutrients, like phosphorus, and
gradual solubility in water have been exploited for their use as slow P-nano-fertilizers. Likewise,
their large (specific) surfaces, due to their nanometric size, have been functionalized with additional
macronutrient-containing species, like urea or nitrate, to generate N-nano-fertilizers with more
advantageous nitrogen-releasing profiles. In this regard, several studies report encouraging results
on the superior nutrient use efficiency showed by CaP nano-fertilizers in several crops than their
conventional counterparts. Based on this, the advances of this topic are reviewed here and critically
discussed, with special emphasis on the preparation and characterization approaches employed to
synthesize/functionalize the engineered nanoparticles, as well as on their fertilization properties in
different crops and in different (soil, foliar, fertigation and hydroponic) conditions. In addition, the
remaining challenges in progress toward the real application of CaP as nano-fertilizers, involving
several fields (i.e., agronomic or material science sectors), are identified and discussed.