Zinc oxide nanoparticles are a new solution to deal with global warming

Rice, the staple food of billions, faces a growing threat: climate change. Rising temperatures and increasingly extreme heat are having a negative impact on rice yields around the world.

According to the scientific news department of Tekna Technology Media, researchers are investigating ways to make rice plants more resistant to harsh conditions. A team of horticulturalists from Nankai University in China has come up with a surprising solution: zinc oxide nanoparticles. They say that spraying a solution containing these particles on rice plants increases their ability to withstand heat stress. “We show that foliar application of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) significantly increases grain yield and nutritional quality of rice during the hot season (HW),” the researchers wrote in their paper.

Extreme heat is a serious threat to rice production and causes a significant reduction in yield and even complete destruction of the crop. To reduce the devastating effects of heat from climate change, scientists are trying to develop strategies to protect plants. Recent research has shown that foliar application of zinc nanoparticles is a more efficient method of delivering zinc to plants, because these particles can penetrate into leaf pores. Zinc nanoparticles are a common ingredient in sunscreen formulations.

Intrigued, the team investigated the potential of zinc oxide to protect rice yield from extreme heat. According to Phys.org, in the new study, researchers created a custom greenhouse and exposed rice plants to a simulated heat wave. The results showed that the plants that were treated with zinc oxide nanoparticles had a 22.1% higher yield than the control group and their seeds had a higher nutritional quality.

This study shows that the use of zinc oxide nanoparticles can be an effective solution to increase the resistance of rice against climate changes and improve the production of this important product. This finding can create a revolution in sustainable agriculture.
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