A Methodical Study to Unravel the Potential of using Polysaccharides based Organic Nanoparticles Versus Hybrid Nanoparticles for Pesticide Delivery

Abstract

Conventional pesticide release pollutes the atmosphere and root healthiness threats. To daze its limitations, nanotechnology mediated pesticide delivery using various natural polymers have been actively investigated. However, the lack of information on what are the beneficial/non-beneficial aspects of using hybrid- and organic- nanoparticles (NP) and among the polysaccharides which are better suited concerning pesticide loading efficiency (PLE), entrapment efficiency (E.E), and sustained-pesticide-release (SPR) has prompted us to investigate this study. In this report, we systematically investigate a series of polysaccharides such as starch (S), cellulose (C), aminocellulose (AC) and sodium carboxymethylcellulose (NaCMC) coated on magnetite NP (MNP, Fe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>) and complete organic nanocarrier systems (starch and cellulose) that have no MNP part were compared for the PLE and SPR efficiencies for chlorpyrifos (ChP) insecticide. Overall, all nanocarriers (NCs) have shown good to excellent PLE due to the smaller sized NP obtained through optimal conditions. However, among the hybrid polysaccharides studied, starch MNP (S-MNP) has shown a maximum PLE of 111 wt% in comparison with other polysaccharides (80 – 94 wt%) as well as with organic-NCs (81 – 87 wt%). The use of inorganic support does improve the PLE greatly for starch but not for cellulose derivatives. Similarly, the SPR results of S-NP showed remarkably better sustained-release-profile for ChP of 88 % in 14 days, whereas other unfunctionalized and functionalized celluloses exhibited poor release profiles of 60 – 20 % for the same period. These results indicate that the superior performance of starch might be due to the beta-1,4- & 1,6-linkages of sugar moieties leading to the branched polymers which bring more room for the pesticide to be entrapped and allow them to release in a sustainable manner. We believe that this study may help the researchers to choose the right system for designing and achieving enhanced pesticide efficiency.