Fabrication of chitosan–alginate nanospheres for controlled release of cartap hydrochloride

Abstract Insecticide cartap hydrochloride (C) was fabricated as nanospheres by a two-step method of ionic gelification and polyelectrolyte complexation of alginate (ALG) and chitosan (CS) to undermine its adverse effects on environment. Nanospheres were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectra and x-ray diffraction. The size of cartap hydrochloride entrapped chitosan alginate nanospheres (C-CS-ALG nps) was in range of 107.58–173.07 nm. Cartap hydrochloride nanospheres showed encapsulation efficiency of 76.19% and were stable for 30 d at ambient temperature. Release of cartap from nanospheres fitted best with first order linear kinetics followed by Hixson and Higuchi model suggesting super case II transport release. With the application of such control release nanoformulations, it is possible to reduce the frequency of field application of insecticide due to its slow release to the target organism, which is economical as well as environmentally safe.