Pheromone release with silica matrix by sol-gel process for mating disruption

Abstract

The use of pesticides lead to health and environmental pollution problems, so eco-friendly system for insect control is demanded all over the world. To solve these problems, insect prevention method like biological method has been used as Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The principle of mating disruption dispenser is to attract male of insect that mistake synthetic pheromone with real female pheromone. For effective application of the artificial pheromone, optimized dispensers have been needed to control the release rate for response to number of insects. In this research, silica matrix as dispenser material was used to control the release rate of oriental fruit moth (OFM) pheromone. Sol-gel process is a simple method for producing solid materials. Silica matrix was synthesized by sol-gel process with changing the ratio of TEOS and MTES precursor and analyzed the characteristics of silica gel that made different ratio by using NMR, FT-IR, EA, SEM, and AFM. Furthermore, release rate was calculated by release test from each silica matrix. As MTES precursor is increased, structure is more porous and density of bond is decreased than used much TEOS precursor. So, release rate is rapid at high percent of MTES matrix that consist of high proportion of methyl group. Matrix that synthesized by sol-gel process has release delayed effectiveness, 3~13 times that is compared to pheromone release without matrix. Silica matrix was synthesized simple chemical reaction without any toxic solvents. So, this system answer the purpose of lowering the environmental damage. Furthermore, this silica sol-gel matrix system can improve pheromone dispenser for mating disruption and apply to air freshener.