Chinese scientists develop new kind of light-responsive herbicide with high efficiency but low cost

Recently, a research team led by WU Zhengyan from Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a new kind of light-responsive herbicide with high efficiency but low cost, which is expected to be widely applied.

The researchers used a nanocomposite to develop a light-responsively controlled-release herbicide particle (LCHP), which means the release of the herbicide depends on its radiation of UV-Vis. In recent years, controlled-release pesticides (CRP) has become one of the hot spots in agriculture and environment fields.

Several kinds of CRPs have been fabricated using pH and temperature responsive materials. The release could be efficiently adjusted by pH and temperature to match the demand of crops, however, resulting in a rather high UE.

In fact, there are disadvantages in those available CRPs. PH-responsive CRP might have negative effect on growth of plant attributed to the use of acid or alkaline solution, and temperature-responsive CRP exhibits high energy-consumption and complex operation.

As for the LCHP by WU’s team, it displayed excellent light-responsively controlled release performance under the radiation of UV-Vis (365 and 435 nm). Besides, it possessed a good adhesion performance on surface of weeds leaves in favor of enhancing UE. Coexisting ions (CO32-, SO42-, and Cl-) and pH had little impact on LCHP release in water, proving the high stability of this technology.

Due to these propertities, LCHP could realize high efficiency but with low-cost. Researchers believe it also could be an environmental-friendly approach to control release of pesticide and enhance the UE.

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Science and Technology Service Programs of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Science and Technology Major Project of Anhui Province.