Recent progress in the application of mesoporous silica nanoparticles to controlled pesticides delivery system

Research and development of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) has gained worldwide interest due to its unique properties such as biocompatibility, large surface area, tunable pore size and facile surface functionalization. This review discussed the research progress of the preparation methods of MSNs (soft-template method, hard-template method and self-templating method), characterization techniques (transmission electron microscopy, TEM; scanning electron microscopy, SEM; X-ray diffraction, XRD; physical adsorption analysis; thermal gravimetric analysis and differential thermal analysis, TGA-DTA; fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, FT-IR) and their application in the field of pesticide science. Potential problems of employing MSNs as pesticides controlled release carriers and its prospective were also discussed.