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Nanotechnology in fertilizers

Nature Nanotechnology volume 5, page 91 (2010)Cite this article

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Nitrogen, which is a key nutrient source for food, biomass, and fibre production in agriculture, is by far the most important element in fertilizers when judged in terms of the energy required for its synthesis, tonnage used and monetary value. However, compared with amounts of nitrogen applied to soil, the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) by crops is very low. Between 50 and 70% of the nitrogen applied using conventional fertilizers — plant nutrient formulations with dimensions greater than 100 nm — is lost owing to leaching in the form of water soluble nitrates, emission of gaseous ammonia and nitrogen oxides, and long-term incorporation of mineral nitrogen into soil organic matter by soil microorganisms1. Numerous attempts to increase the NUE have so far met with little success, and the time may have come to apply nanotechnology to solve some of these problems.

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Figure 1: Nanomaterials can enter plants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, K1S 5B6, Ontario, Canada

    Maria C. DeRosa, Ryan Walsh & Yasir Sultan

  2. Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, 960 Carling Avenue, Ottawa, K1A 0C6, Ontario, Canada

    Carlos Monreal & Morris Schnitzer

Authors
  1. Maria C. DeRosa
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  2. Carlos Monreal
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  3. Morris Schnitzer
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  4. Ryan Walsh
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  5. Yasir Sultan
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Correspondence to Maria C. DeRosa.

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DeRosa, M., Monreal, C., Schnitzer, M. et al. Nanotechnology in fertilizers. Nature Nanotech 5, 91 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2010.2

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