Peptide-based particles for agriculture

Agriculture is an essential source of food and nutrition. It is in constant danger due to the high abundance of pathogens and parasites and low quality of soil. To fight these organisms and improve the soil, the agriculture industry uses fertilizers and pesticides. However, these chemicals are often washed away and therefore needs to be administrated in high concentration. Therefore, we developed peptide-based capsules that can adhere to plants and adsorb or encapsulate different types of materials. Using these capsules, we will be able to decrease the use of fertilizers and pesticides and reduce their environmental damage by limiting and controlling their release to the environment. We used scanning electron microscope (SEM) to determine the shape and the size of the capsules, fluorescence microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to determine the exist of the encapsulated material.