Yangzhou University successfully made Emamectin Benzoate and Prochloraz nanocapsules to achieve precise release of pesticides

It is reported that the green pesticide creation and application team of the Plant Protection College of Yangzhou University successfully made Emamectin Benzoate nanocapsules and Prochloraz nanocapsules using Polydopamine and MESNPs as carriers, respectively, and put pesticides into "safety capsules". This not only improves the adhesion ability of pesticides on crop leaves, but also ensures the application performance and use safety of pesticides.

For many years, the problems of excessive pesticide residues in agricultural products, water and soil environmental pollution are mostly caused by the failure of traditional pesticide processing formulations to ensure that the effective ingredients accurately reach the target, and the excessive use of pesticides. Therefore, it is urgent to find new alternative formulations to ensure the safe use of pesticides and the effective control of diseases and insects.

The key factors affecting the controlled release performance of active ingredients in pesticide nanocapsules are the selection and formulation of carrier materials. After a lot of research, we zeroed in on Polydopamine and MESNPs, two nanocallers that not only meet the basic requirements of payload pesticides, but also have their own characteristics." Said Shi Liyin, a member of the team.

According to relevant experts from the Plant Protection College of Yangzhou University, Polydopamine can be directly used as the wall material of nanocapsules, which can save costs and simplify the preparation process while protecting the effective ingredients and improving adhesion. MESNPs has the characteristics of diversified structure, large specific surface area, surface modifiable, high porosity and adjustable pore size. Pesticide molecules can be wrapped in pores and controlled release can be achieved.

In view of the application performance and safety of pesticides, two kinds of nanocapsules were prepared by emulsified interface polymerization and hard template method, using Emamectin Benzoate and Prochloraz as model pesticides and Polydopamine and OMS（organic modified silicas) as capsule wall materials, respectively.

"Putting pesticides into 'safety capsules' not only overcomes the shortcomings of traditional formulations, such as poor slow release performance, excessive pesticide residues, pollution of water and soil, and high acute toxicity to mammals, but also avoids the problems of complex process, long cycle, low biological safety for non-target, and certain environmental risks in the formulation of existing nano-carrier materials." Said Feng Jianguo, associate professor of plant protection College of Yangzhou University.

The results showed that the insecticidal activity of Emamectin Benzoatenanocapsules was still significantly higher than that of traditional formulations after 15 days of application. Indoor simulated rain erosion experiments showed that the amount of nanocapsules deposited on leaves after 10 times of washing was still about 10 times of the traditional formulation, which had stronger adhesion and improved the effective utilization rate of pesticides.