Nanochemistry advancing photofertilizer for plant research

Abstract

There is a saying that all living things grow by the sun, which signifies the vital role of solar energy in the accumulation of biochemical energy on the earth. As primary producers in ecosystems, plants play a fundamental role in bioaccumulation. With the rapid advancement of nanotechnology, nanomaterials (NMs) have been playing an increasingly essential role in the field of plant research. NMs have been used as an intelligent agent, which has a larger contact surface per unit mass compared with bulk-products so that it can play a greater role at specific points of plant target. From the perspective of scientific research, NMs have shown many characters on account of their flexible size, composition, physical properties and surface chemistry. Especially, for the light-responsive NMs (LRNMs) for plant research (named as nano-photofertilizer), when they enter specific parts of the plants, they can regulate or monitor plant body functions through photon conversion or generation of other functional species. Hitherto, the progress of LRNMs in the field of plant research mainly covers photon-mediated optical imaging, growth regulation, optical detection/sensing and antimicrobial/pesticides. In the present review, the interactions between LRNMs and plants and the recent developments of LRNMs regarding plant research will be discussed and summarized. Ultimately, the current challenges and prospects will be indicated, through which to offer a timely basic guidance for future nano-photofertilizer research.