A strategy for the free-formulation application of hydrophobic pesticides: achieving efficient and multifunctional utilization to promote green and sustainable agriculture

BACKGROUND

Pesticides are crucial agricultural production materials that ensure global food security. However, the hydrophobic nature of most pesticides makes direct field application impossible. Existing formulations for hydrophobic pesticides encounter challenges such as inevitable complicated formulation process and low utilization efficiency, which lead to environmental pollution and ecological risk, significantly contrary to green, environmentally friendly, and sustainable development.

RESULTS

In this study, a novel pesticide delivery platform (named PIF) was developed by incorporating a fluorinated surfactant into pesticide molecular structure. PIF exhibits exceptional water dispersity and multifunctionality, facilitating the direct and efficient utilization of hydrophobic pesticides. Due to the excellent properties of fluorinated surfactant, the static surface tension of PIF was greatly reduced (30.252 mN/m), and the contact angle of PIF aqueous solution was decreased to 85.8° at 335 mg/L (as a comparison, the mixture of pesticide and surfactant was 99.8°), enabling effective wetting, spreadability on hydrophobic surface. Additionally, this functionalization of pesticide endowed it with a new structure, enhancing photodegradation resistance by 24.2% after irradiation for 1400 s. Bioactivity investigations indicated that PIF maintained anti-bacterial activity, and was far higher than the physical mixture (mixture of fluorinated surfactant and Fenhexamid) by 47.3%. In the biosafety assay, PIF showed a lower influence on the germination and growth of wheat seeds than Fenhexamid technical.

CONCLUSION

This novel pesticide delivery platform, combined with the hydrophobic pesticide and high-performance fluorinated surfactant, could be applied directly without formulation and achieve effective wetting and spreadability, photostability, high bioactivity, and low crop toxicity. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.