edta-coated fe3o4 nanoparticles: a novel biocompatible fertilizer for improving agronomic traits of sunflower (helianthus annuus)

in this study, a set of experiments were conducted to investigate the influence of edta-grafted iron oxide nanoparticles exposure on agronomic traits of sunflower (helianthus annuus) plants. the experiment was implemented by applying nano-fe3o4-edta and fe-edta fertilizers applied through spray or soil amendment. a variety of parameters including aerial organ biomass, number of leaves, plant height, chlorophyll content as well as elemental quantities of the plants were investigated. the results demonstrated considerably dominant effect of nano-fe3o4-edta fertilizer on many of the studied factors. the dramatically increased fe content of plants (137% relative to the control) by using nano-fe-edta, makes this novel fertilizer a promising candidate to obviate iron deficiency problem in plants. moreover, it was clearly observed that more pronounced positive effects is obtained through soil amendment than by foliar application of fertilizers and only in some cases such as aerial organ biomasses and fe content, the foliar treatment has turned out to be more effective.