Green Carbon Dots/CaCO3/Abamectin Colloidal Pesticide Formulation for Safer and More Effective Pest Management

Chuang Chen; Guopeng Teng; Weicheng Shen; Yijun Lu; Yuwei Jin; Xue Yuan; Kang Chen; Yue Yuan; Zhengyan Wu; Jia Zhang

doi:10.1021/acsnano.4c12707

Green Carbon Dots/CaCO₃/Abamectin Colloidal Pesticide Formulation for Safer and More Effective Pest Management

ACS Nano. 2024 Dec 21. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.4c12707. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Chuang Chen^{1

2}, Guopeng Teng^{1

2}, Weicheng Shen¹, Yijun Lu³, Yuwei Jin^{2

4}, Xue Yuan^{1

2}, Kang Chen^{1

2}, Yue Yuan¹, Zhengyan Wu^{1

2}, Jia Zhang^{1

2

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, P. R. China.
² Engineering Research Center of Environmentally Friendly and High-Performance Fertilizer and Pesticide of Anhui Province, Institute of Intelligent Machines, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China.
³ Key Laboratory of Medical Physics and Technology of Anhui Province, Institute of Health and Medical Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China.
⁴ Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei 230039, P. R. China.

PMID: 39707989
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.4c12707

Abstract

An ideal green leaf-deposited pesticide formulation should offer advantages such as good water dispersibility, strong foliar affinity, sustained or controlled release of active ingredients, photostability and rain-fastness, minimal nontarget toxicity, use of nontoxic organic solvents, and degradable adjuvants. In line with this objective, we present green preparation of a colloidal pesticide formulation using optimized lysine-derived carbon dots (LysCDs)-modified CaCO₃ (LysCDs/CaCO₃) particles as the carrier and abamectin (Abm) as the active ingredient. The loading capacity of abamectin in this colloidal pesticide (LysCDs/CaCO₃/Abm) is 1.7 to 2.1 times higher than that of its counterpart (CaCO₃/Abm) prepared without LysCDs, which is attributed to the increased specific surface area and pore volume of LysCDs/CaCO₃ particles. Due to the acid-induced degradation of CaCO₃, the release of abamectin for LysCDs/CaCO₃/Abm is accelerated under weakly acidic conditions, which is accompanied by the release of Ca²⁺ ions and the fluorescence changes of LysCDs. The incorporation of LysCDs enhances the photostability and foliar adhesiveness of this colloidal pesticide, resulting in the highest degree of foliar retention when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light or rainfall, compared to free-form abamectin and CaCO₃/Abm. This results in the best performance of pest control on Plutella xylostella for LysCDs/CaCO₃/Abm in both indoor and outdoor tests. Nontarget biocompatibility evaluations show that LysCDs/CaCO₃/Abm exhibits lower acute toxicity to zebrafish and earthworms than free-form abamectin. In addition, this colloidal pesticide is favored by the minimal residue of the adjuvant material after abamectin release, which is converted into harmless Ca²⁺ ions, CO₂, and LysCDs. Therefore, this work designs a safer and more effective colloidal pesticide formulation to deliver abamectin with minimal adjuvant residue, realizing its trajectory as basically "circular and green".

Keywords: CaCO3; Plutella xylostella; abamectin; carbon dots; green pesticide.