Temperature-responsive microcapsule hydrogel fabricated by pickering emulsion polymerization for pheromones application

Insect pheromone is a natural effective biological pesticide. To improve the utilization efficiency of pheromone pesticides and reduce labor costs, a sustained and controlled release preparation coordinating with the circadian rhythm of insects has been proposed by our previous report. However, that preparation has some deficiencies, such as the loading capacity of pheromone and sustained time. In order to overcome the existent shortcomings, a temperature-responsive release microcapsule hydrogel loaded with myrcene (as a pheromone model) was fabricated by Pickering emulsion polymerization using modified SiO2 nanoparticles as a stabilizer of microcapsule wall, octadecane and Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) separately as temperature responders of microcapsule core and wall in the present study. The morphological structure and thermal performance of the microcapsule hydrogel were characterized. The release behaviors of myrcene at different environmental temperatures and alternating temperature cycles were also tested. The results indicated that myrcene was successfully loaded in the Myrcene/Octadecane@SiO2-PNIPAM (MOSP) microcapsule hydrogel with encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of 80.3 % and 13.3 %, respectively. The results of the myrcene release under simulated diurnal temperature cycles revealed that the cumulative release amount was only about 43 % during 15 cycles and release rates respectively were about 0.79 μg/h at 35 °C and 0.058 μg/h at 25 °C, which demonstrated the persistent temperature sensitivity and good temperature rhythm remained after 15 cycles. These results suggested that the MOSP microcapsule hydrogel had a good controlled release effect on myrcene and could adapt well to the circadian rhythm activity of some insects. Therefore, this study provided a promising strategy to improve the utilization efficiency of pheromones through the combination of octadecane and PNIPAM as pheromones release controllers.