Buds and leaves emerge as plants thrive along the ancient Huaihe River in Huai'an City, east China's Jiangsu Province, March 10, 2024. /VCG

A Chinese research team has developed a carbon-based nanomaterial from agricultural waste biomass that can enhance plant photosynthesis and potentially boost crop growth.

According to their recent study published in Communications Materials, the researchers from Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University developed the carbon quantum dots, a carbon-based nanomaterial synthesized from agricultural waste biomass such as straw, leaves and weeds, Science and Technology Daily reported on Monday.

The study reveals that the new material converts ultraviolet light, which plants cannot absorb, and green light, which they absorb inefficiently, into red light for more efficient absorption. It also excites electrons from absorbed photons to provide additional electrons for the photosynthetic electron transport chain, thus improving the photosynthesis efficiency.

To conduct the experiment, the researchers put the material into the liquid culture medium of cyanobacteria or sprayed it on plants. The results show that the glycerol-producing cyanobacteria have a 2.4-fold increase in CO2 fixation rate and a 2.2-fold growth in glycerol production. Meanwhile, the biomass of Arabidopsis plant is increased by 1.8 times.

According to the study, the material not only improves photosynthetic efficiency and promotes plant growth, but also offers the advantages of low cost and high biocompatibility, making it highly promising for future agricultural production and solar-powered biomanufacturing.

Preliminary experiments also show that the material can promote the growth of plants such as duckweed, peanuts, corn, and soybeans.

The research team plans to carry out further field experiments.

(Cover: Trees and vegetation blossom in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, March 10, 2025. /VCG)