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BACKGROUND: The presence of barnyardgrass poses a threat to global food security by reducing rice yields. Currently, herbicides are primarily applied for weed management. However, the effectiveness of herbicide deposition and uptake on barnyardgrass is limited as a consequence of the high wax content on leaves, low water solubility and extreme lipophilicity of herbicides. Therefore, it is imperative to develop novel formulations for efficient delivery of herbicides to improve herbicidal activity and reduce dosage. RESULTS: We successfully prepared nanosuspension(s) (NS) of quinclorac through the wet media milling technique. This NS demonstrates excellent physical stability and maintains nanoscale during dose transfer. The deposition concentration and uptake concentration of NS on barnyardgrass were 3.84–4.47‐ and 2.11–2.58‐fold greater than those traditional formulations, respectively. Moreover, the NS exhibited enhanced herbicidal activity against barnyardgrass at half the dosage required by conventional formulations without compromising rice safety. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that NS can effectively facilitate the delivery of hydrophobic and poorly water‐soluble herbicide active ingredients, thereby enhancing their deposition, uptake and bioactivity. This study expands the potential application of NS in pesticide delivery, which can provide valuable support for optimizing pesticide utilization, improving economic efficiency and mitigating environmental risks. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The polylactic acid-glycolic acid copolymer (PLGA) has been proven to be applicable in medicine, but there is limited research on its application and safety in the agricultural field. In this paper, thifluzamide PLGA microspheres were prepared via phacoemulsification and solvent volatilization, using the PLGA copolymer as the carrier and thifluzamide as the active component. It was found that the microspheres had good slow-release performance and fungicidal activity against Rhizoctonia solani. A comparative study was conducted to show the effect of thifluzamide PLGA microspheres on cucumber seedlings. Physiological and biochemical indexes of cucumber seedlings, including dry weight, root length, chlorophyll, protein, flavonoids, and total phenol content, indicated that the negative effect of thifluzamide on plant growth could be mitigated when it was wrapped in PLGA microspheres. This work explores the feasibility of PLGA as carriers in fungicide applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High imidization temperature of polyimides (PIs) brings great restriction to the applications in electronic industry. In this study, N,N′‐carbonyldiimidazole (CDI), a novel low‐temperature imidization accelerator with the unique dual function of catalyst and dehydrating agent, was researched to solve this problem. PIs synthesized from 4,4′‐(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride (6FDA) and 4,4′‐oxydianiline were researched as the main object on method A and method B, two preparation methods of PIs, by introduction of CDI, which was found that the PIs prepared by method A achieved complete imidization and basically had no residual CDI and N,N‐Dimethylacetamide at 180 °C under vacuum, while the completely imidized PIs prepared by method B were also obtained at 40 °C. Even prepared at low temperature, the PI films with adding CDI both showed satisfactory thermal and mechanical properties, especially in reducing coefficient of thermal expansion. In addition, the universality of the reaction between CDI and poly(amic acid) were also verified by other soluble PI systems. All these results prove the superior performance of CDI in lowering imidization temperature, showing great potentials in low‐temperature cured PIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]