A novel and green sulfur fertilizer from CS2 to promote reproductive growth of plants

Abstract Carbon disulfide (CS2) is seen an odor-toxic organic sulfur compound, which presents a major impact on global climate change. Therefore, the conversion of CS2 into valuable chemicals is the key to reduce the concentration of CS2 in the atmosphere. On the basis of a CS2 fixation strategy, CS2-storage materials (CS2SMs) are firstly synthesized by the reaction of CS2 with a binary ion-like liquid systems of ethylenediamine (EDA) and ethylene glycol derivatives (EGs) under mild condition. In view of the serious shortage of sulfur fertilizer and its important position in global agricultural production, it is a promising choice to use the CS2SMs as a new type of green sulfur fertilizer to promote the growth of eggplant, tomato, sweet pepper and cucumber. In this work, the influence of CS2SMs on the growth of plants were studied by taking plants irrigated by using various aqueous CS2SMs solutions as experimental groups, and those irrigated by using water and NH4HCO3 as control groups. The experimental results showed that all CS2SMs could promote plant height, stem diameter, root weight, flower bud number and leaf size. Especially, several CS2SMs presented significant influence on fluorescence and fruit number. Further studies showed that the CS2SMs as new energy resources sulfur-containing boosted leaf area, improved root development, enhanced photosynthesis and soil nutrient uptake, and promoted vegetative and reproductive growth of these four types of plants. Thus, this work provided a new strategy for the use of CS2 as an indirect energy source for the experimental four plants.