Solid agrochemicals
with poor thermal stability pose a huge challenge
to their production and application. Herein, two low-melting-point
fungicides, pyraclostrobin (ZJ) and flusilazole (FZ), were designed
to form cocrystals with the high melting point fungicide of thiophanate-methyl
(TM), respectively. An infrequent multistep slurry conversion crystallization
process was discovered and studied, which accelerated the formation
of cocrystals, and the mechanism was revealed. Oiling-out of FZ and
ZJ was the key process to multistep slurry conversion crystallization.
The heterogeneous system possessed the advantage of high energy, which
accelerated the synthesis of cocrystals. Furthermore, the variations
of physicochemical properties containing thermal stability, tap density,
formulation ability, and storage stability of both the parent fungicides
and cocrystals were analyzed and compared. Packing coefficient and
crystal structure analysis revealed the structure–property
relationships of cocrystals. The single-crystal structure showed the
strong N-H···N hydrogen bonds between the FZ and TM,
and N-H···O and N-H···S interactions
in the ZJ-TM cocrystal. Strong hydrogen bonds stabilize the structures
of cocrystals, which enables ZJ-TM and FZ-TM to be made into a greener
water suspension concentrate, instead of an emulsifiable concentrate
with pollution.