Plant-oil based polymeric emulsions as adhesive nanocarriers for enhancing the efficacy of nanopesticides

As the growth of crops often encounters many insect pests and diseases, nanopesticides with high efficacy are desired to sustain the high yield. However, a straightforward and efficient approach to constructing new formulations of nanopesticides with robust environmental tolerance is seriously lacked. In this work, reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) emulsion copolymerization has been successfully utilized to synthesize adhesive plant oil-based emulsions as nanocarriers for nanopesticides, presenting outstanding environmental tolerance and superior bioactivity. It is found that the obtained plant oil-based emulsions have good adhesion properties with the incorporation of two epoxidized Camellia oil monomers, since the amide group in one of the monomers as the hydrogen bonding donor enables the formation of supramolecular network within the copolymers. Owing to the most balanced adhesive and cohesive properties, the emulsion with the best adhesion properties achieves the highest retention capability of pesticide upon rinsing with water. Further, the nanopesticide with the adhesive plant oil-based emulsion as nanocarriers showcases outstanding environmental tolerance and bioactivity. This result can be attributed to the high UV-absorbance ability, outstanding adhesion properties, and good hydrophobicity of nanocarriers. This study underlines the feasibility for the fabrication of superior nanopesticides by harnessing adhesive plant oil-based emulsions as nanocarriers.

Automated summary

This study successfully synthesized adhesive plant oil-based emulsions as nanocarriers for nanopesticides using reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) emulsion copolymerization, which exhibited outstanding environmental tolerance and superior bioactivity. Emulsions with the best adhesion properties showed the highest retention capability of pesticide upon rinsing. Furthermore, the nanopesticide with adhesive plant oil-based emulsion as nanocarriers demonstrated excellent environmental tolerance and bioactivity. This study highlights the feasibility of utilizing adhesive plant oil-based emulsions as nanocarriers for the fabrication of superior nanopesticides.