Development of stimuli-responsive nano-based pesticides: emerging opportunities for agriculture

Marcela Candido Camara,Renata Aparecida Monteiro,Leonardo Fernandes Fraceto,Estefânia Vangelie Ramos Campos,Patrícia Luiza De Freitas Proença,Anderson Do Espirito Santo Pereira

doi:10.1186/s12951-019-0533-8

Abstract

Pesticides and fertilizers are widely used to enhance agriculture yields, although the fraction of the pesticides applied in the field that reaches the targets is less than 0.1%. Such indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides is disadvantageous due to the cost implications and increasing human health and environmental concerns. In recent years, the utilization of nanotechnology to create novel formulations has shown great potential for diminishing the indiscriminate use of pesticides and providing environmentally safer alternatives. Smart nano-based pesticides are designed to efficiently delivery sufficient amounts of active ingredients in response to biotic and/or abiotic stressors that act as triggers, employing targeted and controlled release mechanisms. This review discusses the current status of stimuli-responsive release systems with potential to be used in agriculture, highlighting the challenges and drawbacks that need to be overcome in order to accelerate the global commercialization of smart nanopesticides.

Highlights

One of the main current challenges facing global agriculture is the need to control and reduce the intensive use of agrochemicals such as herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides
Nanotechnology seems to offer a way to mitigate the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment and human health, since it can provide systems enabling the controlled release of active compounds, increasing the efficiency and safety of products, while reducing the quantities required in field applications
A hotspot of agricultural nanotechnology is the development of stimuli-responsive nanoformulations able to maintain the stability of the active ingredient under environmental conditions, deliver the active ingredient to the target, decrease its dispersal in the environment, and prolong its biological activity

Summary

Introduction

One of the main current challenges facing global agriculture is the need to control and reduce the intensive use of agrochemicals such as herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides. Controlled release systems are emerging technologies that have attracted global commercial and scientific interest in recent years. Such systems are used in areas including medicine, cosmetics, engineering, food, and agriculture [3]. Considering their use in the agricultural and environmental sector, a survey using the Scopus database (considering the period from 2009 to 2019) showed that only 6% of research concerning nanoformulations was related to the agroindustry field, of which 77% concerned controlled release nanoformulations, while only 23% involved stimuli-responsive materials (Fig. 1). Redox, and other types of stimuli together accounted for 20% of the studies (Fig. 1)

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Conclusion