129. The Effect of Carbon Nanotubes on Rice Seed Germination and Root Growth

There are few researches available on the effects of carbon nanotubes on rice seed germination and root growth. Aiming at this problem, rice seeds were co-cultured with carbon nanotubes of different concentrations. The rice seedling growth situation was observed including germination percentage rates, length of seeding stem and root. The absorbance was measured and the root activity was calculated. Experiment results showed that the rice seed germination and root growth were promoted by carbon nanotubes with appropriate concentrations (0 ~ 100 μg/ml). When the concentration increased to 150 μg/ml, the root length, root activity and stem length decreased in comparison with the value of 100 μg/ml, but still slightly higher than the control, although the root and stem lengths were shorter than the control. Our results demonstrated, for the first time, that carbon nanotubes could promote rice seed germination and root growth at lower concentrations, and may have toxic effects at high concentrations.