Dr. Xiaoyu Gao is an Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in the Department of Environmental Science at Baylor University. He obtained his bachelor's degree from Nanjing University. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineeringfrom Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests include tracking thetransport, transformation, and bioavailability of emerging pollutants (e.g., nanomaterials, microplastics) in complex environmental media and designing novel nanomaterials for sustainable agriculture and environmental remediation. He has published 18 papers in well-known peer-reviewed journals, such as Environmental Science & Technology, Nature Nanotechnology, ACS Nano, and Journal of Hazardous & Materials, etc., with an H-index of 12 and more than 1,100 citations.

ABSTRACT:

Foliar application of micronutrients encapsulated in nanocarriers to crops is an emerging strategy for enhancing corp yield while reducing fertilizer use and minimizing soil and water contamination. Phloem translocation of nanoparticles (NPs) from leaves is required to ensure efficient fertilization but is currently only considered feasible for NPs smaller than the cell wall pore size exclusion limit, which is estimated to be < 20 nm. With the use of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, for the first time, we have demonstrated the phloem transport of the~70nm ZnO@MSN to various untraeted pasrts of the plant following foliar application. Furthermore, we observed that dosing ZnO@MSN to the abaxial (bottom) side of the leaf resulted in a 56% increase in translocation efficiency than dosing the adaxial (top) side, which correlates well with the higher stomatal density on the abaxial side. Results from our study suggest a novel, efficient, and sustainable way of delivering micronutrients to plants.

If you are interested in Dr. Gao's study, and looking forward to become a Ph.D. student, please feel free to make a contact with Dr. Xiaoyu Guo: xiaoyu_gao@baylor.edu or WeChat - willgao20.