The Effect of Various Carbon Nanotubes on Barley Germination

Abstract

Objective: Carbon nanotubes (CNT), one of the most important carbon-based nanomaterials, have started to be used in the fields of biology and medicine. Drug delivery, cancer treatment, biosen-sors, biomedical imaging and their use as composite materials in tissue engineering are some of the biomedical applications. How-ever, their extensive applications may increase the risk of their be-ing released into the environment. Thus, in this study, we investigated the effects of different carbon on barley (Hordeum vulgare L. ‘Zeynelağa’) germination. Material and Method: In addition to usage of commercial sin-gle-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CCNT) have also synthesized carboxylated multi-walled carbon nanotubes and characterized them with FTIR spectroscopy. Later, we investigated the effect of different concentrations (50 and 100 mg/L) of carbon nanotubes on the germination of barley seeds. Results: Compared to control groups, treatment of barley seeds with different concentrations of three carbon nanotubes had no effect on barley germination. Conclusion: It was observed that tested carbon nanotubes have no toxic effect on barley germination. In addition to these data, it is also important to investigate whether there is a difference in the gene expression level in order to understand the actual effect of these materials. © 2023 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.