In agriculture, the search for higher net profit is the main challenge in the economy of the producers and nano biochar attracts increasing interest in recent years due to its unique environmental behavior and increasing the productivity of plants by inducing resistance against phytopathogens. The effect of rice straw biochar and fly ash nanoparticles (RSBNPs and FNPs, respectively) in combination with compost soil on bacterial leaf spot of pepper caused by Xanthomonascampestris pv. vesicatoria was investigated both in vitro and in vivo. The application of nanoparticles as soil amendment significantly improved the chili pepper plant growth. However, RSBNPs were more effective in enhancing the above and belowground plant biomass production. Moreover, both RSBNPs and FNPs, significantly reduced (30.5 and 22.5%, respectively), while RSBNPs had shown in vitro growth inhibition of X.campestris pv. vesicatoria by more than 50%. The X-ray diffractometry of RSBNPs and FNPs highlighted the unique composition of nano forms which possibly contributed in enhancing the plant defence against invading X.campestris pv. vesicatoria. Based on our findings, it is suggested that biochar and fly ash nanoparticles can be used for reclaiming the problem soil and enhance crop productivity depending upon the nature of the soil and the pathosystem under investigation.
The effects of disorder on the structural, magnetic and transport properties of stoichiometric Co2Mn
x
Ti1−x
Al (0 ⩽ x ⩽ 1) thin films are reported. All the compositions exhibited B2-type structure with the actual composition of each film, as determined by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), being close to the nominal value. The values of saturation magnetization increase with increasing Mn content in the films and are in general agreement with the values obtained using the Slater–Pauling rule and the actual (RBS determined) compositions. Electrical resistivity as a function of temperature shows a change from metallic-type behaviour for x ⩽ 0.25 to a semiconducting type for x > 0.25. At lower temperatures (T < 25 K) metallic compositions show the presence of a resistivity minimum. The resistivity behaviour above low T upturn in metallic compositions follows a T
2 dependence that is explained in terms of electron–electron scattering and one-magnon scattering. The presence of a resistivity minimum and the crossover from metallic to semiconducting type resistivity are explained in terms of localization effects originating mainly in the Co antisite disorder in these alloy films.
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