Researcher name
Project Summary
In this research project, in order to establish a controlled and stable food production environment, we propose a system that realizes increase in food production using atmospheric pressure plasmas inducing bactericidal action, plant immunity enhancement, and plant growth promotion. The key components, which are responsible for these biological effects, are unstable reactive nitrogen species, which are synthesized from inexpensive air and water through the plasma reactors. These short-lived nitrogen compounds contributing to the functionalization of plants are defined as “functional nitrogen”. The main purpose of this research project is to synthesize and control the novel functional nitrogen using the plasmas and to clarify the mechanism of their actions on plants. On the other hand, the functional nitrogen and some by-products may damage plant cells, and the second purpose of this research project is to elucidate the mechanism of this “cell damage” and to find out how to overcome it. The final goal is to demonstrate a “sustainable farm” that grows plants with functional nitrogen without using conventional chemical pesticides and chemical fertilizers by exploring novel functional nitrogen and plasma-controlled synthesis of them.
Results
【2022】
【2021】
【2020】
【2019】
１．Research Results (excerpt)
We attempted to develop a new plasma source that can reduce the ozone density as much as possible and selectively synthesize functional nitrogen. We have succeeded in developing a device that can selectively supply NO / NO2 and N2O5 by combining a device that promotes NOx production due to high temperature in the plasma reaction field and a device that promotes O3 production by maintaining the reaction field at room temperature.
In particular, N2O5, which is unstable due to thermal decomposition and cannot be supplied from the gas cylinder, can be synthesized from air as a raw material (Fig. 1, Table 1). By designing it so that researchers in other fields can easily use it, we believe that it will be a tool to open up the elucidation of the action of N2O5 on organisms, which is an unexplored area.
２．Invited Talk
The 42nd PhotonIcs & Electromagnetics Research Symposium（Invited）
“Gas-Liquid Interfacial Plasmas Generating Short-Lived Reactive Species for Drug/Gene Transfer into Living Cells”
T. Kaneko, S. Sasaki, R. Honda, M. Kanzaki
Swiss Grand Xiamen (Xiamen, China), 2019.12.19．
３．Media
Asahi Shimbun’s speech site “Ronza” published,
“Plasma is used for agriculture to create a sustainable food production system -a new basis for global focus, reduction of chemical pesticides and fertilizers-” on May 26, 2020.
The research of this project, “Sustainable Farm”, was also introduced in “Ronza”.
Press Release
2022.08.19:Plasma-produced Gas Helps Protect Plants Against Pathogens, Researchers Find
