20.500.12556/DiRROS-24054 Hydrophilization of rice seeds by plasma treatments – super-hydrophilic surface finish and hydrophobic recovery The hydrophobic character of rice seeds protects them from quick water adsorption and, thus, premature germination. This property is, however, a drawback in modern agriculture, where rapid and uniform germination represents a high-quality trait. A method for rapid hydrophilization of the Lomello variety of rice is presented. The rice seeds were treated with low-pressure gaseous plasma to tailor the wettability. The treatment of seeds with hulls with oxygen plasma afterglow enabled the super-hydrophilic surface finish within 10 ms. Such extremely fast hydrophilization was attributed to irreversible surface oxidation by neutral oxygen atoms whose flux onto the seeds was approximately 3 × 1023 m−2s−1. Dehulled seeds were made super-hydrophilic by subsequent treatments with hydrogen and oxygen plasma, and the required dose of O atoms was between 2 × 1023 and 6 × 1024 m−2. Larger doses caused a loss of the super-hydrophilicity. Hydrophilization kinetics is proposed and supported by measuring surface wettability, morphology, and composition using various techniques. The hydrophobic recovery of seeds with hulls is marginal within the first few days after plasma treatments, but dehulled seeds lose the super-hydrophilic surface finish within a few minutes after the plasma treatment when stored at ambient conditions. rice seed water adsorption surface treatment wettability super-hydrophilicity riževa zrna adsorpcija vode površinska obdelava superhidrofilnost true false true Elsevier Nizozemska Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik © 2025 The Authors. Neznano 2025-11-10 12:11:16 2025-11-10 12:11:16 2025-11-11 03:47:05 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Soavtorji iz Slovenije: Dane Lojen, Gregor Primc, Rok Zaplotnik, Nives Ogrinc, Miran Mozetič; Opis vira z dne 18. 2. 2025; str. 1-12 Vol. 691, [article no.] 162674 May 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 2024-12-22 2025-02-11 2025-02-11 60 1873-5584 10.1016/j.apsusc.2025.162674 226439939 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169433225003885?via%3Dihub 1 fc3c0c11-be25-11f0-94a7-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=35750 RAZ_Vesel_Alenka_2025.pdf RAZ_Vesel_Alenka_2025.pdf 1 6E1B1BEC0D34524C2C3632B90E107068 6312338bee425b72fcccf514eac61f50467e5d742249cf9740216cdfb31c7958 35021f63-be26-11f0-94a7-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=35751 Institut Jožef Stefan 0 0 0