ED Sciences Chimiques
Development of a biological antifreeze product
by Romain MAURY (Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques)
The defense will take place at 9h30 - Amphi 1 16 Avenue Pey-Berland, 33607 Pessac Cedex France Bâtiment A
in front of the jury composed of
- Véronique COMA - Maîtresse de conférences - Université de Bordeaux - Directeur de these
- Cécile MONTEUX - Directrice de recherche - ESPCI - Rapporteur
- Julien BRAS - Professeur - Grenoble INP Pagora - Rapporteur
- Henry CRAMAIL - Professeur - Université de Bordeaux - Examinateur
- Charles DUMORTIER - Docteur - Bioboon Agrology - Examinateur
Spring frost is a devastating phenomenon capable of destroying an entire crop production in a single night. Today, the defense methods against frost are often ineffective and too costly. The aim of this thesis work, carried out in collaboration with Bioboon Agrology, is to develop a biobased formulation capable of effectively protecting crops during the growth period from a night frost event. An effective way to counter frost damage is to prevent the formation of the first layer of ice on the surface of the crop. Once this ice layer is formed, multiple lesions will appear on plant tissues and frost will spread internally, causing devastating osmotic and oxidative shocks. To prevent this ice formation, two approaches have been developed in this work. The first one consists of creating an aqueous foam that insulates the plants thermally during the night. The second one is a hydrophobic biobased coating formulated from kaolin, stearic acid and chitosan designed to prevent liquid water to be formed and to remain on the plant, but also to limit the presence of nucleating agents responsible for ice formation. The in vivo efficacy of these two protections was evaluated in a convective frost chamber.