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Stimulus-responsive release systems for site-specific pesticide delivery are one of the promising strategies to improve the use efficiency of pesticides as well as decrease environmental damage. Herein, a plant disease microenvironment-responsive nanosystem using disulfide-bridged mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles (MONs) as the porous support and calcium carbonate (CaC) as the capping agent was constructed to deliver prochloraz (PRO) for management of Sclerotinia disease. The obtained PRO-MON-CaC had high loading capacity and could effectively enhance the light stability of PRO. This delivery system could respond to different biological stimuli associated with Sclerotinia disease and release PRO intelligently. Compared with PRO emulsion in water, PRO-MON-CaC provided a longer Sclerotinia disease protection window on potted rapeseed plants. The acute toxicity of PRO-MON-CaC to zebrafish was reduced more than 4-fold compared with that of PRO technical. Additionally, MON-CaC nanocarriers had no obvious influence on the growth of rapeseed plants. This study represents a promising approach for sustainable plant disease management and precision farming.

Due to high volatility and water solubility, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) can easily enter into the atmosphere and water bodies by volatilization, drift, leaching, or runoff, which results in potential threats to the environment and human health. The physicochemical properties of pesticides can be regulated by preparing their ionic liquids. In this work, a series of dicationic ionic liquids (DILs) of 2,4-D were prepared to reduce its environmental risk and enhance herbicidal activity. The solubility, octanol-water partition coefficient, surface tension, and volatilization rate results of DILs showed that these properties could be optimized by choosing appropriate countercations. Compared to 2,4-D ammonium salt, DILs have lower volatility, water solubility, and surface tension as well as higher lipophilicity. Benefiting from optimized physicochemical properties, DILs HIL8-12 exhibited better herbicidal activity against three typical broadleaf weeds than 2,4-D ammonium salt, and their fresh weight inhibition rates increased by 2.74-46.84%. The safety assessment experiment indicated that DILs were safer to wheat than commercialized forms of 2,4-D. The DILs could reduce the environmental risk of 2,4-D caused by high volatility and water solubility and would be potential alternatives to its commercialized formulations.

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