Dynamic light scattering and zeta-potential as a tool for understanding the mechanism of pesticides binding toward individual components of transition metal nanoparticles and graphene oxide hybrids

Abstract

Pesticides present in their commercial formulations are studied for their preferable binding toward carbon-based graphene oxide (GO) or transition metal nanoparticles (Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu), present as hybrids. This simple study also reveals the mechanism of interaction of few selected different classes of pesticides, namely, λ-cyhalothrin, imidacloprid, and metsulfuron-methyl toward these hybrids. Individually, to study this comparative binding when hybrids are not used, the understanding of preferred binding toward any of these selected compounds could be challenging, costly, and time-consuming. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) is used to study the changes observed for hydrodynamic radius and zeta potential for the stability of the resulting products. This simple method can also be extended to identify the binding mechanism for other diverse set of combinations. These studies are supported by binding of GO with nanoparticles in batch adsorption and the best fit using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms is presented. Moreover, pesticide adsorption toward GO-nanoparticle composites is also evidenced.

Keywords:

• λ-Cyhalothrin
• imidacloprid
• metsulfuron-methyl
• Fe NPs
• Co NPs
• Ni NPs
• Cu NPs
• hydrodynamic size
• stability
• commercial formulation

Acknowledgements

The research described in this article was partially financially supported by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan under National Research Program for Universities with reference no. 20-3369/R&D/HEC/14/978, which was awarded to Dr. A. J. Shaikh.

Author contributions

Z.U.H. contributed to bench work and initial draft preparation. Z.A. and K.B. contributed to data fixation. M.H.A. and S.A. contributed to formulations. A.M.K. and U.F. contributed to UV–vis spectroscopy. M.S.K. contributed to adsorption studies. A.J.S. contributed to conceptualization, visualization, methodology, investigation, supervision, writing– reviewing and editing, and validation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Additional information

Funding

The research described in this article was partially financially supported by the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan under National Research Program for Universities with reference no. 20-3369/R&D/HEC/14/978, which was awarded to Dr. A. J. Shaikh.