Chitosan Plasma Chemical Processing in Beam-Plasma Reactors as a Way of Environmentally Friendly Phytostimulants Production

Abstract

A novel technique of phytoactive water-soluble chitooligosaccharide (COS) production in low-temperature plasma is described. Design, operation, and control of plasma chemical reactors used to produce COS from the powder of high molecular weight chitosan are presented. The electron beam plasma is strongly non-equilibrium and chemically active; plasma was excited by injecting the scanning electron beam into reaction volume filled with aerosol, containing oxygen and chitosan powder. Plasma chemical processes, responsible for the raw chitosan destruction and techniques of these processes to obtain control of products of optimal molecular weight, are considered. COS, in amounts sufficient for laboratory tests with some plants, were produced. Tests showed that the addition of COS into the liquid growing medium at 0.25 and 1 mg/mL stimulates root growth in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings (Col-0) by up to 40%, with respect to control plants. Foliar application of these COS formulations at 0.25 mg/mL on tomato plants (cv. Micro-Tom) also resulted in increases between 11.9% and 36% in two important plant productivity indicators (flower and fruit numbers) compared to the control plants. Being environmentally friendly (and resource saving) the electron beam plasma technology of renewable natural biopolymer processing can be considered as a competitive way to produce biostimulants for commercial agriculture.

Hybrid plasma chemical reactors for bio-polymers processing

“…One end of the reaction vessel 11 is open and EB 2 is injected into the vessel through it. The EB is generated by electron gun 1 inside high vacuum chamber 14 and then is transported into working chamber 10 via special injection window (IW) 13 described in [16]. The IW is combined with the electromagnetic deflection system that can deflect the EB axis in two perpendicular directions and can also scan the EB to shape a desirable raster.…”

“…Instabilities of other types are also observed in the HP: thermoacoustic instabilities can appear in plasmas localized in closed volume and excitation of solid particles oscillations can be observed in plasmas containing a condensed phase as ordered dust-plasma structures [16]. Figure 3 illustrates a stable mode of the HP generation in a quartz tube: the EB is injected along the RF plasma cloud excited by a ring electrode system.…”

“…At present models and simulation techniques for the aerosol EBP and HP are not sufficiently developed and experimental data are more reliable in designing plasma-chemical reactors and optimizing their operation. The majority of available data concerns with the kinetics of solid aerosol particles in the EBP and stability of beam-plasma reactors with aerosols in the reaction zone [14][15][16].…”

Reducing Nitrogen Input in Barley Crops While Maintaining Yields Using an Engineered Biostimulant Derived From Ascophyllum nodosum to Enhance Nitrogen Use Efficiency

“…An initial evaluation of the ability of PSI-362 to improve NUE and nitrate content was carried out using Arabidopsis thaliana (Col-0) seedlings. This experiment was based on a high throughput root microphenotyping platform published previously (Vasilieva et al, 2021). Arabidopsis seeds were sterilized and grown on Phytostrip tubes filled with a sterile solid medium and inserted into 96-well plates (six seeds per tube).…”