Sustainable delivery of plant nutrients: Selective uptake controlled by wax phase behaviour

Summary

As global population rises there is a growing challenge in terms of plant healthcare to ensure that key crops do not fail, and that agricultural yields are high. To do this, agrochemicals are used to provide the nutrients for good crop health. To get the nutrients into the crop, the sprayed droplets of nutrients must move through a hydrophobic leaf wax barrier. This wax barrier is needed to retain water in the plant, but it creates an interesting scientific challenge as to how the agrochemicals can penetrate the barrier to deliver the nutrients whilst at the same time ensuring the leaf maintains a viable water content. Furthermore, to best utilise the agrochemicals, it is critical that they should only act on the crops and not promote the growth of undesired competitive species such as weeds.

The Leeds group has a long-established track record in the processing and characterisation of crystalline and semi-crystalline long chain hydrocarbon and their associated formulations which has been underpinned by more than 40 years of strategic collaboration with Syngenta. The studentship builds upon previous work on leaf waxes in which the phase diagram of wax-representative mixed long chain alkane and alcohol systems have been inter-related to their molecular and crystallographic structures and to their behaviour with respect to water transpiration. This project seeks to extend this work into a comparative assessment of representative examples crop (maize) and weed (amaranthus) species.

The PhD is in collaboration with Syngenta, a world leading agrochemical company, committed to improving plant heath, sustainability and helping feed the world. The studentship will be primarily based at the University of Leeds accessing expertise and specialised techniques but will work closely with researchers at Syngenta through regular visits and teleconferences. During this studentship there will be an opportunity to gain direct industrial experience via a 3–6-month placement at Syngenta’s Jealott’s Hill international research centre.

We are seeking a candidate who is highly motivated, keen to develop their research knowledge in the areas of crystallization and colloids and surface science, and is passionate about global food supply.

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