Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effects of graphene on seed germination and seedling growth

  • Research Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Nanoparticle Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The environmental impact of graphene has recently attracted great attention. In this work, we show that graphene at a low concentration affected tomato seed germination and seedling growth. Graphene-treated seeds germinated much faster than control seeds. Analytical results indicated that graphene penetrated seed husks. The penetration might break the husks to facilitate water uptake, resulting in faster germination and higher germination rates. At the stage of seedling growth, graphene was also able to penetrate root tip cells. Seedlings germinated from graphene-treated seeds had slightly lower biomass accumulation than the control, but exhibited significantly longer stems and roots than the control, which suggests that graphene, in contrast with other nanoparticles, had different effects on seedling growth. Taken together, our results imply that graphene played complicated roles in affecting the initial stage of seed germination and subsequent seedling growth.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Allen MJ, Tung VC, Kaner RB (2010) Honeycomb carbon: a review of graphene. Chem Rev 110:132–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Begurn P, Ikhtiari R, Fugetsu B (2011) Graphene phytotoxicity in the seedling stage of cabbage, tomato, red spinach, and lettuce. Carbon 49:3907–3919

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casiraghi C, Hartschuh A, Qian H, Piscanec S, Georgi C, Fasoli A, Novoselov KS, Basko DM, Ferrari AC (2009) Raman spectroscopy of graphene edges. Nano Lett 9:1433–1441

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chauhan N, Pundir CS (2011) An amperometric biosensor based on acetylcholinesterase immobilized onto iron oxide nanoparticles/multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified gold electrode for measurement of organophosphorus insecticides. Anal Chim Acta 701:66–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choi W, Lahiri I, Seelaboyina R, Kang YS (2010) Synthesis of graphene and its applications: a review. Crit Rev Solid State 35:52–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dutta S, Pati SK (2010) Novel properties of graphene nanoribbons: a review. J Mater Chem 20:8207–8223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • El-Temsah YS, Joner EJ (2012) Impact of Fe and Ag nanoparticles on seed germination and differences in bioavailability during exposure in aqueous suspension and soil. Environ Toxicol 27:42–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrari AC, Meyer JC, Scardaci V, Casiraghi C, Lazzeri M, Mauri F, Piscanec S, Jiang D, Novoselov KS, Roth S, Geim AK (2006) Raman spectrum of graphene and graphene layers. Phys Rev Lett 97:187401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardea-Torresdey JL, Parsons JG, Gomez E, Peralta-Videa J, Troiani HE, Santiago P, Yacaman MJ (2002) Formation and growth of Au nanoparticles inside live alfalfa plants. Nano Lett 2:397–401

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo S, Dong S (2011) Graphene nanosheet: synthesis, molecular engineering, thin film, hybrids, and energy and analytical applications. Chem Soc Rev 40:2644–2672

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hernandez Y, Nicolosi V, Lotya M, Blighe FM, Sun Z, De S, McGovern IT, Holland B, Byrne M, Gun’ko YK, Boland JJ, Niraj P, Duesberg G, Krishnamurthy S, Goodhue R, Hutchison J, Scardaci V, Ferrari AC, Coleman JN (2008) High-yield production of graphene by liquid-phase exfoliation of graphite. Nat Nanotechnol 3:563–568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu W, Peng C, Luo W, Lv M, Li X, Li D, Huang Q, Fan C (2010) Graphene-based antibacterial paper. ACS Nano 4:4317–4323

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khodakovskaya M, Dervishi E, Mahmood M, Xu Y, Li Z, Watanabe F, Biris AS (2009) Carbon nanotubes are able to penetrate plant seed coat and dramatically affect seed germination and plant growth (retracted article. see, vol. 6, pp. 7541, 2012). ACS Nano 3:3221–3227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khodakovskaya MV, de Silva K, Biris AS, Dervishi E, Villagarcia H (2012) Carbon nanotubes induce growth enhancement of tobacco cells. ACS Nano 6:2128–2135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim TH, Lee S, Chen X (2013) Nanotheranostics for personalized medicine. Expert review of molecular diagnostics 13:257–269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kudin KN, Ozbas B, Schniepp HC, Prud’homme RK, Aksay IA, Car R (2008) Raman spectra of graphite oxide and functionalized graphene sheets. Nano Lett 8:36–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee W-M, Kwak JI, An Y-J (2012) Effect of silver nanoparticles in crop plants phaseolus radiatus and sorghum bicolor: media effect on phytotoxicity. Chemosphere 86:491–499

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin D, Xing B (2007) Phytotoxicity of nanoparticles: inhibition of seed germination and root growth. Environ Pollut 150:243–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Z, Robinson JT, Sun X, Dai H (2008) PEGylated nanographene oxide for delivery of water-insoluble cancer drugs. J Am Chem Soc 130:10876–10877

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Q, Zhao Y, Wan Y, Zheng J, Zhang X, Wang C, Fang X, Lin J (2010) Study of the inhibitory effect of water-soluble fullerenes on plant growth at the cellular level. ACS Nano 4:5743–5748

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma X, Geiser-Lee J, Deng Y, Kolmakov A (2010) Interactions between engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) and plants: phytotoxicity, uptake and accumulation. Sci Total Environ 408:3053–3061

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mohmood I, Lopes CB, Lopes I, Ahmad I, Duarte AC, Pereira E (2013) Nanoscale materials and their use in water contaminants removal-a review. Environ Sci Pollut R 20:1239–1260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morpeth DR, Hall AM (2000) Microbial enhancement of seed germination in Rosa corymbifera ‘Laxa’. Seed Sci Res 10:489–494

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nair R, Mohamed MS, Gao W, Maekawa T, Yoshida Y, Ajayan PM, Kumar DS (2012) Effect of carbon nanomaterials on the germination and growth of rice plants. J Nanosci Nanotechnol 12:2212–2220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Novoselov KS, Morozov SV, Mohinddin TMG, Ponomarenko LA, Elias DC, Yang R, Barbolina II, Blake P, Booth TJ, Jiang D, Giesbers J, Hill EW, Geim AK (2007) Electronic properties of graphene. Physica Status Solidi B 244:4106–4111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prasad TNVKV, Sudhakar P, Sreenivasulu Y, Latha P, Munaswamy V, Reddy KR, Sreeprasad TS, Sajanlal PR, Pradeep T (2012) Effect of nanoscale zinc oxide particles on the germination, growth and yield of peanut. J Plant Nutr 35:905–927

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shao YY, Wang J, Wu H, Liu J, Aksay IA, Lin YH (2010) Graphene based electrochemical sensors and biosensors: a review. Electroanal 22:1027–1036

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang Y, Li Z, Hu D, Lin C-T, Li J, Lin Y (2010) Aptamer/graphene oxide nanocomplex for in situ molecular probing in living cells. J Am Chem Soc 132:9274–9276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamaguchi S (2008) ‘Gibberellin metabolism and its regulation’, Annual review of plant biology, pp. 225–251

  • Zhang X, Coleman AC, Katsonis N, Browne WR, van Wees BJ, Feringa BL (2010) Dispersion of graphene in ethanol using a simple solvent exchange method. Chem Commun 46:7539–7541

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zheng L, Hong FS, Lu SP, Liu C (2005) Effect of nano-TiO2 on strength of naturally and growth aged seeds of spinach. Biol Trace Elem Res 104:83–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zheng G, Cui Y, Karabulut E, Wagberg L, Zhu H, Hu L (2013) Nanostructured paper for flexible energy and electronic devices. MRS Bull 38:320–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge partial financial support of this work by the NSF through Grant CHE-1213333.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA

    Ming Zhang & Bin Gao

  2. Department of Environmental Horticulture and Mid-Florida Research & Education Center, University of Florida, Apopka, FL, 32703, USA

    Jianjun Chen

  3. Soil and Water Science Department Tropical Research & Education Center, University of Florida, Homestead, FL, 33031, USA

    Yuncong Li

Authors
  1. Ming Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bin Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jianjun Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yuncong Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bin Gao.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhang, M., Gao, B., Chen, J. et al. Effects of graphene on seed germination and seedling growth. J Nanopart Res 17, 78 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-015-2885-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-015-2885-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation