54 research outputs found
The role of nanoparticle structure and morphology in the dissolution kinetics and nutrient release of nitrate‑doped calcium phosphate nanofertilizers
Bio-inspired synthetic calcium phosphate (CaP) nanoparticles (NPs), mimicking the mineral
component of bone and teeth, are emergent materials for sustainable applications in agriculture.
These sparingly soluble salts show self-inhibiting dissolution processes in undersaturated
aqueous media, the control at the molecular and nanoscale levels of which is not fully elucidated.
Understanding the mechanisms of particle dissolution is highly relevant to the efcient delivery of
macronutrients to the plants and crucial for developing a valuable synthesis-by-design approach. It
has also implications in bone (de)mineralization processes. Herein, we shed light on the role of size,
morphology and crystallinity in the dissolution behaviour of CaP NPs and on their nitrate doping
for potential use as (P,N)-nanofertilizers. Spherical fully amorphous NPs and apatite-amorphous
nanoplatelets (NPLs) in a core-crown arrangement are studied by combining forefront Small-Angle
and Wide-Angle X-ray Total Scattering (SAXS and WAXTS) analyses. Ca2+ ion release rates difer
for spherical NPs and NPLs demonstrating that morphology plays an active role in directing the
dissolution kinetics. Amorphous NPs manifest a rapid loss of nitrates governed by surface-chemistry.
NPLs show much slower release, paralleling that of Ca2+ ions, that supports both detectable nitrate
incorporation in the apatite structure and dissolution from the core basal faces.Fondazione Cariplo
2016-0648FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades-Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (FEDER/MCIU/AEI, Spain) through the project NanoVIT
RTI-2018-095794-A-C22FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades-Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (FEDER/MCIU/AEI, Spain) through the project NanoSmart
RYC-2016-21042FEDER/MCIU/AEI within the Juan de la Cierva Program (JdC2017
Reducing Nitrogen Dosage in Triticum durum Plants with Urea-Doped Nanofertilizers
Nanotechnology is emerging as a very promising tool towards more efficient and sustainable
practices in agriculture. In this work, we propose the use of non-toxic calcium phosphate nanoparticles
doped with urea (U-ACP) for the fertilization of Triticum durum plants. U-ACP nanoparticles present
very similar morphology, structure, and composition than the amorphous precursor of bone mineral,
but contain a considerable amount of nitrogen as adsorbed urea (up to ca. 6 wt % urea). Tests on
Triticum durum plants indicated that yields and quality of the crops treated with the nanoparticles at
reduced nitrogen dosages (by 40%) were unaltered in comparison to positive control plants, which
were given the minimum N dosages to obtain the highest values of yield and quality in fields. In
addition, optical microscopy inspections showed that Alizarin Red S stained nanoparticles were
able to penetrate through the epidermis of the roots or the stomata of the leaves. We observed that
the uptake through the roots occurs much faster than through the leaves (1 h vs. 2 days, respectively).
Our results highlight the potential of engineering nanoparticles to provide a considerable efficiency
of nitrogen uptake by durum wheat and open the door to design more sustainable practices for
the fertilization of wheat in fields.This research was funded by Fondazione CARIPLO (project no. 2016-0648: Romancing the stone:
size-controlled HYdroxyaPATItes for sustainable Agriculture–HYPATIA) and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia,
Innovación y Universidades (MCIU/AEI/FEDER) with the Projects NanoSmart (RYC-2016-21042) and NanoVIT
(RTI-2018-095794-A-C22). GBRR also acknowledges the Spanish MICINN for her postdoctoral contract within
the Juan de la Cierva Program (JdC-2017)
Strange particle production in proton-proton collisions at TeV with ALICE at the LHC
The production of mesons containing strange quarks (K, ) and both
singly and doubly strange baryons (, Anti-, and
+Anti-) are measured at central rapidity in pp collisions at
= 0.9 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The results are
obtained from the analysis of about 250 k minimum bias events recorded in 2009.
Measurements of yields (dN/dy) and transverse momentum spectra at central
rapidities for inelastic pp collisions are presented. For mesons, we report
yields () of 0.184 0.002 stat. 0.006 syst. for K and
0.021 0.004 stat. 0.003 syst. for . For baryons, we find
= 0.048 0.001 stat. 0.004 syst. for , 0.047
0.002 stat. 0.005 syst. for Anti- and 0.0101 0.0020 stat.
0.0009 syst. for +Anti-. The results are also compared with
predictions for identified particle spectra from QCD-inspired models and
provide a baseline for comparisons with both future pp measurements at higher
energies and heavy-ion collisions.Comment: 33 pages, 21 captioned figures, 10 tables, authors from page 28,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/387
Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at = 2.76 TeV
The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb
collisions at TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is
presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the
longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The
pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than
those measured at RHIC.Comment: 17 pages, 5 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 12,
published version, figures at
http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/388
Suppression of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in central Pb-Pb collisions at TeV
Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of primary charged particles in Pb-Pb
collisions at = 2.76 TeV have been measured by the ALICE
Collaboration at the LHC. The data are presented for central and peripheral
collisions, corresponding to 0-5% and 70-80% of the hadronic Pb-Pb cross
section. The measured charged particle spectra in and GeV/ are compared to the expectation in pp collisions at the same
, scaled by the number of underlying nucleon-nucleon
collisions. The comparison is expressed in terms of the nuclear modification
factor . The result indicates only weak medium effects ( 0.7) in peripheral collisions. In central collisions,
reaches a minimum of about 0.14 at -7GeV/ and increases
significantly at larger . The measured suppression of high- particles is stronger than that observed at lower collision energies,
indicating that a very dense medium is formed in central Pb-Pb collisions at
the LHC.Comment: 15 pages, 5 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 10,
published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/98
Production of pions, kaons and protons in pp collisions at GeV with ALICE at the LHC
The production of , , , , p, and pbar at mid-rapidity
has been measured in proton-proton collisions at GeV with the
ALICE detector. Particle identification is performed using the specific energy
loss in the inner tracking silicon detector and the time projection chamber. In
addition, time-of-flight information is used to identify hadrons at higher
momenta. Finally, the distinctive kink topology of the weak decay of charged
kaons is used for an alternative measurement of the kaon transverse momentum
() spectra. Since these various particle identification tools give
the best separation capabilities over different momentum ranges, the results
are combined to extract spectra from = 100 MeV/ to 2.5 GeV/.
The measured spectra are further compared with QCD-inspired models which yield
a poor description. The total yields and the mean are compared with
previous measurements, and the trends as a function of collision energy are
discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 18 captioned figures, 5 tables, published version, figures
at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/388
Dos nuevas especies de Hechtia (Bromeliaceae; Pitcairnioideae) del centro de M\ue9xico
Volume: 83Start Page: 49End Page: 6
Distribuci\uf3n y conservaci\uf3n de las poblaciones naturales de Pinus greggii
Volume: 72Start Page: 1End Page: 1
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