Carbon Dots as Solubilizing Agent for Insoluble Phosphates in Enhancing Soil Fertility

Abstract Phosphorous (P) is one of the most essential macronutrients plants need for their growth. One of the ways of increasing the availability of P in the soil is by devising methods of solubilizing insoluble phosphates. Glucose is an important carbohydrate component of fulvic acids which has demonstrated its utility in solubilizing insoluble phosphates. In this work, we explored the applicability of carbon dots from glucose (GL‐CD) and N‐doped GL‐CD in solubilizing water‐insoluble inorganic phosphates viz. tricalcium phosphate and copper phosphate. The carbon dots were directly applied to the soil, and the concentration of phosphates available in the soil was estimated by a UV‐visible spectrophotometer. It was observed that tricalcium phosphate, on treatment with GL CD after 30 days, the available phosphate in soil increased by 106.5 %, and mixture of GL CD and N‐GL CD resulted in an increase of 88.7 %. Similarly, for copper phosphate, the available phosphate in soil increased by 186.5 %, 189.1 %, and 164 % after 30 days of treatment with N‐GL CD, GL CD, and mixture of N‐GL CD and GL CD, respectively. Herein, carbon dots derived from glucose has been demonstrated as agents for solubilizing insoluble phosphates, which might be insightful for the application of nanomaterials in agriculture.