Preparation, Characterization, and In Vitro Testing of Nanoclay Antimicrobial Activities and Elicitor Capacity

MERINO, D.; ALVAREZ, V.A.; CASALONGUÉ, C.A.; MANSILLA, A.Y.

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XIV Latin American Symposium on Polymers and XII Ibero American Congress on Polymers; 2018

Currently, the agriculture is going through a period ofsignificant challenges marked by climate change,urbanization and environmental issues such as, theaccumulation of pesticides and fertilizers. In parallel,the great growth of the world population that isexpected to exceed the 9 billion by 2050 makes evidentthe need to carry out new innovative developmentscommitted to the care of the environment andsustainable solutions. Clay based nanocomposites(nanoclays) are interesting systems to hold a wide typeof active substances with a wide field of industrialapplications. In this work, Bentonite-chitosan nanoclaywas obtained via cationic exchange of naturalbentonite (Bent) with an aqueous solution of chitosan(CS). CS is a linear chain cationic polymer derived fromchitin, the second most abundant polymer in nature. Ithas been shown that chitosan causes cell death in alarge variety of pathogenic fungi and inhibits thegrowth of pathogenic bacteria. It has been welldemonstrated that CS induces numerous biologicalresponses in plants and improves defence responses tobiotic and abiotic stresses.Bent-CS nanoclay physicochemical and morphologicalproperties were discussed under the light of FourierTransform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-raydiffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA),transmission (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy(SEM)1. The antimicrobial action of Bent-CS nano-claywas assayed onto phytopathogens, the bacteriummodel Pseudomonas syringe p.v. tomato DC3000 (Psy)and the necrotrophic fungus Fusarium solani f. sp.eumartii (F. eumartii). In addition, the induction ofdefence mechanisms was assayed onto tomatoplantlets1.