Physicochemical determinants of root-particle interactions: engineering safe and sustainable next-generation nanofertilizers for enhanced phosphorous efficiency

The inefficient use of fertilizers in conventional agricultural practices leads to an increase in agrochemical use, increase in cost, and health and environmental impacts upon their release to the environment. Nanotechnology offers new opportunities to develop more efficient fertilizers formulation by enabling size- and surface chemistry-dependant behaviours that can be engineered to enhance plant delivery. In this project, fundamental understanding of the interactions of nanocarriers with plants and determination of the influence of these interactions on nutrient uptake by plants is targeted. The selected nanocarriers are tested in different soils representative of Moroccan agricultural conditions, investigating for instance how the higher salinity and acidity of Moroccan soils can affect nanocarriers’ performance.