Polyphenol‐Inspired Materials for Agricultural Applications
Haofu Liu, Omid Mazaheri, Zhixing Lin, Tianzheng Wang, Jingqu Chen, Yuang Gu, Xia Liang, Deli Chen, Frank CarusoABSTRACT
Securing global food production while reducing environmental burdens demands materials that combine high nutrient use efficiency with sustainability. Polyphenols, a class of natural plant‐derived molecules, provide redox activity, multidentate interactions, and strong interfacial adhesion, making them versatile building blocks for bio‐derived agricultural systems. This review summarizes recent advances in the molecular design and multifunctional applications of polyphenol‐inspired materials across diverse agriculture sectors, including soil remediation, seed coating, nutrient delivery, crop protection, sensing, nitrification inhibition, and food preservation. It focuses on interfacial assembly, structure–property relationships, and environmental interactions of polyphenol‐enabled materials, which collectively govern their performance from laboratory tests to field conditions. Key challenges in current agricultural practice—including low precision and high labor dependence, environmental degradation and ecological imbalance, instability under extreme environmental conditions, and low economic efficiency and unsustainability—are also discussed. Finally, future directions centered on precision and smart agriculture, ecosystem protection, climate‐resilient plant interfaces, and circular bioeconomy are outlined. This review presents a comprehensive framework that connects molecular innovation to system‐level applications, offering a roadmap for future research and the deployment of polyphenols in agriculture.