Is centrifugal ultrafiltration a robust method for determining encapsulation efficiency of pesticide nanoformulations?

LÓPEZ CABEZA, María del Rocío, Mélanie Marie KAH, Renato GRILLO, Zuzana BÍLKOVÁ and Jakub HOFMAN. Is centrifugal ultrafiltration a robust method for determining encapsulation efficiency of pesticide nanoformulations? Nanoscale. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2021, vol. 13, No 10, p. 5410-5418. ISSN 2040-3364. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d0nr08693b.

Basic information

• Original name: Is centrifugal ultrafiltration a robust method for determining encapsulation efficiency of pesticide nanoformulations?
• Authors: LÓPEZ CABEZA, María del Rocío (724 Spain, belonging to the institution), Mélanie Marie KAH (250 France), Renato GRILLO (76 Brazil), Zuzana BÍLKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution) and Jakub HOFMAN (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: Nanoscale, Cambridge, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2021, 2040-3364.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 10400 1.4 Chemical sciences
• Country of publisher: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Impact factor: Impact factor: 8.307
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14310/21:00119168
• Organization unit: Faculty of Science
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d0nr08693b
• UT WoS: 000630384400023
• Keywords in English: Pesticides; nanoparticles; ultrafiltration
• Tags: rivok
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

Loading active ingredients on nanocarrier systems is becoming a common strategy for improving pesticide formulations. One of the most important properties of these nanoformulations is the proportion of pesticide associated with the nanocarriers (encapsulation efficiency, EE). EE is often determined by centrifugal ultrafiltration. However, the losses of active ingredient in the centrifugal ultrafiltration devices are typically not assessed, potentially leading to erroneous results. In this work, the losses of three pesticides (tebuconazole, terbuthylazine and chlorpyrifos) during centrifugal ultrafiltration have been systematically evaluated for nine different devices. Results suggest that centrifugal ultrafiltration is not suitable for determining the EE of compounds such as chlorpyrifos as 100% losses were observed on all the devices tested. Losses of tebuconazole and terbuthylazine were highly variable according to the type of membrane and the lowest losses were observed in the devices with hydrophilic regenerated cellulose membranes. Based on these results, we propose a correction factor and demonstrate its application to calculate the EE of two nanoformulations based on poly(epsilon-caprolactone) nanocarriers. The approach extends the applicability of centrifugal ultrafiltration to a wider range of pesticide nanoformulations. We also discuss the effect of dilution on EE and make recommendations to improve the characterisation of nanoparticles-based pesticide nanoformulations in the future.

Links

• EF17_043/0009632, research and development project: Name: CETOCOEN Excellence
• GA18-19324S, research and development project: Name: Nanopesticidy v životním prostředí – porozumění jejich osudu, biodostupnosti, účinkům a rizikům v půdě a vodě

Investor: Czech Science Foundation

• LM2018121, research and development project: Name: Výzkumná infrastruktura RECETOX (Acronym: RECETOX RI)

Investor: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR, RECETOX RI