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ALUMINOSILICATE NANO-SKELETON TO FIRM THE STRUCTURE AND

PROPERTIES OF NANO-HERBICIDE FORMULATIONS

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8th International
Contaminated Site
Remediation Conference
Incorporating the 2nd
ADELAIDE 2019 International PFAS Conference
8-12 September 2019
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M51-P25
ALUMINOSILICATE NANO-SKELETON TO FIRM THE STRUCTURE
AND PROPERTIES OF NANO-HERBICIDE FORMULATIONS
Santosh Kumar Paul1,2,3, Md Nuruzzaman1,2, Tanya C. Correa1,2, Ravi Naidu1,2
1
Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER), ATC Building, University of
Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, AUSTRALIA
2
Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the
Environment (CRC CARE), ATC Building, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308,
AUSTRALIA
3
Agronomy Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Joydebpur,
GAZIPUR 1701, BANGLADESH
santoshkumar.paul@uon.edu.au

INTRODUCTION
Weed management is always an important aspect in crop production to ensure the quality as
well as higher production (Chauhan et al., 2017). However, weed management is a complex
and continuous process within agricultural systems. Successful weed management practices
tend to prevent yield loss owing to weed competition in the short term as well as avoid the
addition of weed seed/vegetative propagules to the soil seed bank, to reduce weed densities
in subsequent years. As a result, utilization of herbicide become a dominant tool in weed
management over the other practices such as physical, mechanical, cultural, biological etc.
However, the over and indiscriminate use of herbicides results herbicide-resistant (HR) weed
population as well as causes contamination of the surrounding environment through water
movement. To this context, development of new plant protection formulations is highly
desired and has long been a very active field of research so that the problems associated
with commercial herbicide could be overcome.
Now a days, nanotechnology has emerged as a potential technology and plays an important
role in modern agriculture in various aspect including pesticide delivery (Nuruzzaman et al.,
2016). In pesticide delivery, the potential application of this technology have been explored to
formulate the pesticide (e.g., insecticide, fungicide, herbicide etc.) formulations providing
support with nano-carrier materials. While the active ingredients (AIs) of pesticide are loaded
into these nano-carriers through entrapment, adsorption, encapsulation and ligand-mediated
attachment (Ghormade et al., 2011). Therefore, the nano-carrier materials not only firm the
structure of the nanopesticide formulations but also improve their efficacy and properties
(e.g, slow release, protection against premature degradation). So far, polymers-based
nanomaterials, lipid-based nanomaterials, porous inorganic nanomaterials and clay-based
nanomaterials are the most widely used carriers for pesticide delivery. Of the various nano-
carriers, clays are considered as a suitable carrier material and ready to go for commercial
production of nanopesticide such as nano-herbicide formulations because of their natural
source, availability, eco-friendly, non-toxicity and economically viable characteristics.
However, it is important to understand the interactions between the clays and AIs as well as
different ways for the efficient preparation of nanopesticide formulations.

ALUMINOSILICATE BASED NANO-HERBICIDE FORMULATIONS

Clays consist of hydrous aluminosilicate phyllosilicate layers that underpins current research
for the preparation of nano-herbicide formulations. In clays, the thickness of the phyllosilicate
layers belong to nano-scale stacked together leaving an interlayer space known as gallery.
Generally, the active ingredient of herbicides are loaded to this interlayer space via either
cation exchange process or through adsorption establishing different interactions like ion-
dipole interaction, hydrogen bonds, van der Waals forces, co-ordination bonds, charge
transfer, acid-base interaction etc. among AIs and phyllosilicate layers (Lagaly, 2001). Thus,
aluminosilicate phyllosilicate layers act as nano-skeleton to support the herbicide molecules
whereas the interlayer space perform as storehouse. However, modifications of clays are

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needed to enhance herbicide-loading capacity as well as to control the releasing behaviour

of AIs on demand. Clays modified as organoclay by replacing the interlayer inorganic
exchangeable cations with organic quaternary ammonium (R4N+X–) containing alkyl, phenyl,
benzyl, and pyridyl groups held prominent position. With this process, the surface behaviour
of clays change from hydrophilic to hydrophobic that enhances herbicide loading through
hydrophobic interaction. The organic cations could be arranged in various ways (Fig. 1a) with
this playing a vital role in herbicide adsorption process. Due to expanded layer structure,
such clays could also be termed as nanoclay.

Fig.1. Preparation of surface modified clays using a. organic cationic surfactants and
b. polymer

Furthermore, polymer-clay nanocomposites are also potential carriers for herbicide delivery.
In a polymer-clay nanocomposite, the polymers either intercalate to clay layers or completely
exfoliates them (Fig 1b). The main purpose of utilization of clays in polymer nanocomposite
to ensure significant delay in releasing behaviour of AIs. Nonetheless, for the preparation of
polymer-clay nanocomposite biopolymers are known to be an eco-friendly alternative to
conventional polymers (Nuruzzaman et al., 2019).

CONCLUSIONS
Preparation of nano-herbicide formulations using clays are expected to be eco-friendly option
compare to the commercial pesticides. The utilization of clays in herbicide formulations
unveiled as a potential tool due to their aluminosilicate layered structure that not only
increase the stability of the formulations but also enhance the efficacy and sustainability of
the herbicide formulations. However, more investigation is required to understand the
compatibility among a wide range of herbicides and clay-based nanocarriers so that the
herbicide could be delivered in a smart way.

REFERENCES
Chauhan, B. S., Matloob, A., Mahajan, G., Aslam, F., Florentine, S. K., and Jha, P. (2017).
Emerging Challenges and Opportunities for Education and Research in Weed Science.
Frontiers in Plant Science 8:1537.
Ghormade, V., Deshpande, M. V., and Paknikar, K. M. (2011). Perspectives for nano-
biotechnology enabled protection and nutrition of plants. Biotechnology Advances 29,
792-803.
Lagaly, G. (2001). Pesticide–clay interactions and formulations. Applied Clay Science 18,
205-209.
Nuruzzaman, M., Liu, Y., Rahman, M. M., Dharmarajan, R., Duan, L., Uddin, A. F. M. J., and
Naidu, R. (2019). Chapter 4 - Nanobiopesticides: Composition and preparation methods.
In "Nano-Biopesticides Today and Future Perspectives" (O. Koul, ed.), pp. 69-131.
Academic Press.
Nuruzzaman, M., Rahman, M. M., Liu, Y., and Naidu, R. (2016). Nanoencapsulation, Nano-
guard for Pesticides: A New Window for Safe Application. Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry 64, 1447-1483.

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