Abstract Oil Tea (Camellia oleifera) is an important woody edible oil plant in China. Oil Tea suffers from low rate of fruit set during production, which is related to poor pollination and fertilization. Pollen vigor is directly related to pollination and fertilization. Using the interspecific hybrid Y3 (C. grijsii × C. oleifera) as plant material, we studied the effects of sucrose, H3BO3, MgSO4, and IAA on pollen germination using an orthogonal design to determine the best culture medium. Results indicated that pollen germination rates were significantly affected by medium components and ranged from 29.13% to 56.84%. Pollen tube length was the longest in the T5 medium surpassing the control group by 489.36 μm. MgSO4 turned out to be the most important germination medium component having great effect on the pollen germination rate. The optimal culture medium to promote pollen tube growth of Oil Tea Y3 was: 1% agar, 150 g·L-1 sucrose, 0.15 g·L-1 H3BO3, 0.07 g·L-1 MgSO4, and 0.01 g·L-1 IAA. The results of this paper may provide information for foliar application of Mg and IAA, which can improve pollen tube growth of Oil Tea in practice.

In this work, Microsilica, one kind of industry solid waste material, was utilized firstly to prepare a carbon-Microsilica composite adsorbent from a partial carbonization, mixture and sulfoxidation process and was proposed for the removal of Cr(VI) from solutions. The surface chemistry characteristics of the prepared adsorbent were analysis by XPS and FT-IR. The characterization results indicated that an abundant of oxygen functional groups, such as hydroxyl, carboxyl and sulfonic groups, were introduced into the surface of the prepared composite adsorbent. Meanwhile, the adsorption characteristics of Cr(VI) onto the adsorbent in aqueous solutions was studied as a function of solution pH, ionic strength, contact time, and temperature. The results showed that Cr(VI) adsorption onto the adsorbent is strongly dependent on pH and, to a lesser extent, ionic strength. Kinetics data were found to follow the pseudo-second-order kinetic model while the adsorption data corresponded to L-shape adsorption isotherm which corresponds to the classification of Giles. Activation thermodynamic parameters, such as activation enthalpy (ΔH*), activation entropy (ΔS*), activation Gibbs free energy (ΔG*) and activation energy (E), have been evaluated and the possible adsorption mechanism also was suggested.