TY - JOUR
T1 - Imidacloprid Crystal Polymorphs for Disease Vector Control and Pollinator Protection
AU - Zhu, Xiaolong
AU - Hu, Chunhua T.
AU - Erriah, Bryan
AU - Vogt-Maranto, Leslie
AU - Yang, Jingxiang
AU - Yang, Yongfan
AU - Qiu, Mengdi
AU - Fellah, Noalle
AU - Tuckerman, Mark E.
AU - Ward, Michael D.
AU - Kahr, Bart
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Chemical Society
PY - 2021/10/20
Y1 - 2021/10/20
N2 - Imidacloprid, the world’s leading insecticide, has been approved recently for controlling infectious disease vectors; yet, in agricultural settings, it has been implicated in the frightening decline of pollinators. This argues for strategies that sharply reduce the environmental impact of imidacloprid. When used as a contact insecticide, the effectiveness of imidacloprid relies on physical contact between its crystal surfaces and insect tarsi. Herein, seven new imidacloprid crystal polymorphs are reported, adding to two known forms. Anticipating that insect uptake of imidacloprid molecules would depend on the respective free energies of crystal polymorph surfaces, measurements of insect knockdown times for the metastable crystal forms were as much as nine times faster acting than the commercial form againstAedes, Anopheles, andCulexmosquitoes as well asDrosophila(fruit flies). These results suggest that replacement of commercially available imidacloprid crystals (a.k.a. Form I) in space-spraying with any one of three new polymorphs, Forms IV, VI, IX, would suppress vector-borne disease transmission while reducing environmental exposure and harm to nontarget organisms.
AB - Imidacloprid, the world’s leading insecticide, has been approved recently for controlling infectious disease vectors; yet, in agricultural settings, it has been implicated in the frightening decline of pollinators. This argues for strategies that sharply reduce the environmental impact of imidacloprid. When used as a contact insecticide, the effectiveness of imidacloprid relies on physical contact between its crystal surfaces and insect tarsi. Herein, seven new imidacloprid crystal polymorphs are reported, adding to two known forms. Anticipating that insect uptake of imidacloprid molecules would depend on the respective free energies of crystal polymorph surfaces, measurements of insect knockdown times for the metastable crystal forms were as much as nine times faster acting than the commercial form againstAedes, Anopheles, andCulexmosquitoes as well asDrosophila(fruit flies). These results suggest that replacement of commercially available imidacloprid crystals (a.k.a. Form I) in space-spraying with any one of three new polymorphs, Forms IV, VI, IX, would suppress vector-borne disease transmission while reducing environmental exposure and harm to nontarget organisms.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85117518688&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85117518688&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/jacs.1c07610
DO - 10.1021/jacs.1c07610
M3 - Article
C2 - 34634905
AN - SCOPUS:85117518688
SN - 0002-7863
VL - 143
SP - 17144
EP - 17152
JO - Journal of the American Chemical Society
JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society
IS - 41
ER -