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Nanotechnologies in Food and Agriculture pp 103–118Cite as

Nanotechnology Applied in Agriculture: Controlled Release of Agrochemicals

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Abstract

In the last few years, the use of nanotechnology to control environmental pollution has considerably increased. Several nanostructured or nanometric dimensional materials have been used as carrier vehicles in the controlled release of agrochemicals due to their biodegradability, low toxicity, low cost, high reproducibility, easy and fast preparation and characterization, water uptake, and reversible properties. The major advantages of these systems are the gradual, sustained, and controlled release over a long period of time, with the aim to improve agricultural and crop protection . In the case of agrochemicals , the scientific community also aims to obtain biodegradable matrices (biodegradable carrier vehicles) able to reduce the number and frequency of applications of nutrients and pesticides in the soil that would contribute to a decrease in environmental pollution and contamination by pollutants. Thus, it is evident that nanotechnology can play a decisive role in the agriculture field. However, only a few references (including papers and reviews) were found in the literature. This gap is most likely related to the short time that these nanomaterials have been studied for this specific application. With this in mind, the aim of this chapter is to collect reports about different polymeric, inorganic, and hybrid nanomatrices (nanocomposites ) with great potential for applications as carrier vehicles in the controlled release of agrochemicals .

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Brazilian research financing agencies FAPESP (Process 2012/03643-0), CNPq (Process 305146/2012-2) and CAPES for their financial support, grants, and scholarships.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculdade de Engenharia de Ilha Solteira, Departamento de Física e Química, UNESP – Univ Estadual Paulista, 15385000, Ilha Solteira, SP, Brazil

    Fauze A. Aouada & Marcia R. de Moura

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  1. Fauze A. Aouada
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  2. Marcia R. de Moura
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Correspondence to Fauze A. Aouada .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology, SGB Amravati University, Amravati, Maharashtra, India

    Mahendra Rai

  2. Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation-Instrumentation, Embrapa Instrumentation, Sao Carlos, Brazil

    Caue Ribeiro

  3. Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation-Instrumentation, Embrapa Instrumentation, Sao Carlos, Brazil

    Luiz Mattoso

  4. Institute of Chemistry Biological Chemistry Laboratory, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Brazil

    Nelson Duran

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Aouada, F.A., de Moura, M.R. (2015). Nanotechnology Applied in Agriculture: Controlled Release of Agrochemicals. In: Rai, M., Ribeiro, C., Mattoso, L., Duran, N. (eds) Nanotechnologies in Food and Agriculture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14024-7_5

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