Steady state and time resolved laser-induced fluorescence of garlic plants treated with titanium dioxide nanoparticles

The study involves investigation of the effect of the interaction of titanium dioxide nanoparticles with garlic plant by spectroscopy techniques. For this, garlic plants have been grown in the laboratory under controlled conditions of light flux, temperature, humidity, and nutrient media. The growth and biomass parameters in terms of shoot length, fresh, and dry mass are found to increase upon the treatment of titanium dioxide nanoparticles while a reduction is observed in the root length of the garlic plants. The steady state laser-induced fluorescence, time resolved laser-induced fluorescence, and ultraviolet visible spectra of the control and titanium dioxide nanoparticles-treated plants have been acquired. The curve fitting data reveal that titanium dioxide nanoparticles decrease the intensity and fluorescence intensity ratio of red and far red chlorophyll fluorescence bands indicating increase in the photosynthetic activity and chlorophyll content. The evaluation of life time of the excited chlorophyll molecule shows that life time is effected by the treatment of the titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The results pertaining to ultraviolet visible measurement indicate increase in the concentration of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, carotenoid, and quercetin in the leaves of garlic plants treated with titanium dioxide nanoparticles.