TITLE:
New Method for Measurement of Plant Roots Specific Surface
AUTHORS:
Grzegorz, Jozefaciuk, Malgorzata Lukowska
KEYWORDS:
Adsorption Isotherm; Plant Roots; Specific Surface Area; Cation Exchange Capacity
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.4 No.5,
May
29,
2013
ABSTRACT: To provide enough space to
carry all surface charges responsible for high cation exchange capacity of
plant roots, large area of the root specific surface is necessary, however all
experimental methods used up to date give too small surface area values. In
this paper, we propose to measure
the plant roots surface area using water vapor adsorption isotherm. This method
gives roots specific surface areas compatible to CEC. Methodical aspects of the
measurements are described along with theoretical background for calculating
specific surface area on the example of roots of barley grown in nutrient
solution.