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Graphene oxide as an antimicrobial agent can extend the vase life of cut flowers

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Abstract

“PlantNanOmics” is an emerging topic in agricultural research that explores the potential effect of application of nanomaterials on plant growth. Graphene oxide (GO) has excellent properties due to its basal carbon plane and oxygen-containing functional groups. In the present work, the antimicrobial activity of GO was exploited to extend the vase life and improve the quality of cut roses (cv. Carola). The results revealed that the cut roses cultivated in low doses of GO (0.1 mg/L) had longer vase life, larger diameter, and better water relations. Microbial contaminations at the basal stem end is the most common reason for stem blockage that causes water stress and early wilting of cut flowers. GO was found to act as a germicide, effectively inhibiting the microbial growth at the cut stem end and improving water uptake and water balance of cut roses. Therefore, GO can serve as a promising preservative to increase the ornamental value of cut flowers.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 2172027). D. L. acknowledges support from Australian Research Council (No. IH 150100003) ARC Research Hub for Graphene Enabled Industry Transformation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Yijia He, Ruirui Hu, Meirong Huang & Hongwei Zhu

  2. Center for Nano and Micro Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Yijia He, Xu Liu, Ruirui Hu, Meirong Huang, Guoqiang Chen & Hongwei Zhu

  3. Center for Plant Biology and MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Lichao Qian & Yule Liu

  4. Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Xu Liu & Guoqiang Chen

  5. School of Chemical Engineering, Engineering North Building, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia

    Dusan Losic

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  1. Yijia He
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He, Y., Qian, L., Liu, X. et al. Graphene oxide as an antimicrobial agent can extend the vase life of cut flowers. Nano Res. 11, 6010–6022 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2115-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-018-2115-8

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