Division of Environmental Physics - User: student
Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University Bratislava

Plasma activated water (PAW) as a fertilizer improving the outdoor plant yield: maize case

Ndiffo Yemeli G.B., Machala Z.
19th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PLASMA PHYSICS AND APPLICATIONS & 1st WORKSHOP ON PLASMA APPLICATIONS FOR SMART AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE, Magurele, Bucharest ROMANIA, August 31 - September 3, 2021, p. p136 (2021)

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Abstract:

The activation of water by cold plasma induces some chemical changes such as: formation of reactive particles derived from oxygen and nitrogen (hydrogen peroxide, nitrate/nitrite ions, peroxynitrite, etc.). Amongst these reactive particles, Hydrogen peroxide, nitrate/nitrite ions are considered as key species which provide to the PAW an interest in the agriculture field. These key species play an important role for the rapid germination of seeds and, plant growth enhancement by providing nitrogen from the PAW to the plant. Based on the PAW’s properties, it could be an interesting source of nitrogen provider for the whole growth cycle (from seed to harvest.
We used two types of PAWs generated by transient spark (TS) discharge with water electrospray and by glow discharge (GD) with water cathode, and Hoagland solution. After plasma treatment, each PAW was characterized by measuring long-lived RONS concentrations (H2O2, NO2-, NO3-) by UV/VIS absorption spectroscopy.
After the harvest, the effect of PAWs generated by the two plasma sources and Hoagland solution on maize yield were analyzed by measuring some growth parameters (plant height, product length, product weight).
As shown in Fig.1 (right), we found that the PAW could be effective for watering the plant from seed to harvest. GD 2 (PAW from glow discharge activated for 2 min) showed a similar result to Hoagland solution (HS) which is a common synthetic fertilizer (micro and macro nutriment). The results show us that the PAW effects during the plant cycle up to harvest depend on the concentration of hydrogen peroxide nitrate/nitrite ions