Radiation-induced degradation of sodium alginate and its plant growth promotion effect

Alginate was irradiated as a solid with 60Co gamma rays in the dose range of 20–100 kGy to investigate the effect of radiation on alginates. One of the principle factors for reducing the cost is achieving the degradation at low irradiation doses which occurs with addition of chemical initiator to NaAlg during irradiation process that leads to a synergistic effect, which remarkably increases the degradation efficiency of alginate. The factors affecting the degradation process such as irradiation dose and potassium per-sulfate (KPS) addition were studied. The average molecular weight of the irradiated alginate was investigated in detail by using several complementary techniques such as chromatography and viscometry. The lowest molecular weight of alginate resulted at 100 kGy and added KPS, whereas the highest one at 20 kGy in absence of KPS. Characterization of the oligoalginates obtained by radiation degradation was performed by FT-IR and UV–vis spectroscopy, XRD and TGA. The effect of water-soluble radiation-induced alginate fractions on the growth promotion of Faba bean plant was studied. The highest plant growth and seed yield compared with control occurred for plants sprayed with low molecular weight NaAlg fractions (treated with 100 kGy and added KPS).