Three pesticide-pesticide eutectic systems of boscalid: Mechanochemical preparation, characterization and mechanism analysis

Abstract

Preparation of eutectic mixture is considered to be an efficient means to improve physical and chemical properties in many fields. In this work, three pesticide-pesticide eutectic systems of boscalid with diniconazole, uniconazole and 3,6-dichloropicolinic acid were prepared by mechanochemical method. The formation of eutectic mixtures was identified by differential scanning calorimetry and powder X-ray diffraction characterizations. From the constructed solid–liquid phase diagrams, it is discovered that these eutectic systems could form a eutectic when the molar fraction of boscalid is 0.500. In addition, all eutectic temperatures are more than 29 K lower than the higher melting points of the constituents in the systems, which eliminates the issue of the poor thermal stability of constituents and enables the treatment of them using melting-based operations. Ideal model and COSMO-RS theory also calculate these solid–liquid phase diagrams relatively accurately, and the calculated activity coefficient values prove that these systems do not deviate significantly from the ideal state. The distinct non-ideality at the eutectic composition of the three systems also suggests that the interactions of the three coformers and the boscalid differ. The formation of eutectic mixtures was further confirmed by other solid state characterizations including mid-infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and etc. The accelerated stability test indicates the good stability of the three eutectic mixtures. Furthermore, the water solubility study suggests the boscalid in the eutectic systems has a higher solubility than raw boscalid. By using COSMO-RS modelling, the most typical homo/hetero-molecular complexes of these pesticides were obtained and analyzed. Based on the trend of affinity characterized by the Gibbs free energy of the generation of molecular complexes, it could be inferred that eutectic point could be viewed as the state for which affinity of hetero-molecular complexes is greatest. The affinity of hetero-molecular complexes also presents the interaction between boscalid and 3,6-dichloropicolinic acid is greater than the other two pesticides at the eutectic point. Furthermore, the calculated solvation free energies document the intermolecular interaction plays an important role in stabilizing the three eutectic systems. These eutectic systems solve the problem that the three coformers are unsuitable for melting-based procedures and improve the solubility, making them potential options for future pesticide formulation development.