Organosilica-based deformable nanopesticides with enhanced insecticidal activity prepared by flash nanoprecipitation

Abstract

Deformable materials have attracted intensive research interest due to their special soft framework structure, high surface areas, large void spaces, and potential applications in agricultural and biomedical fields. In this work, we demonstrate a flash nanoprecipitation (FNP) method for fabricating novel deformable hollow mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles (HMONs) by employing a versatile multi-inlet vortex mixer (MIVM). The synthesized HMONs possessed a high surface area (571.1 m² g⁻¹), a narrow size distribution (PDI = 0.03), and a large hollow cavity. The particle sizes (457–629 nm) of the HMONs could be tuned by easily controlling the mixing Reynolds (Re) number. More importantly, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) results revealed that the as-obtained HMONs were deformable in solution. The deformable HMONs possessed a lower Young's modulus (EY) of 53.20 MPa as compared to non-deformable HMONs (176.55 MPa). The deformable HMONs were further loaded with abamectin (Abm), which showed improved affinity to the leaf surface, as well as enhanced insecticidal activity against Meloidogyne incognita, demonstrating great promise for sustainable agricultural applications.