engleski

Encapsulation of Biological and Chemical Agents for Plant Nutrition and Protection: Chitosan/Alginate Microcapsules Loaded with Copper Cations and Trichoderma viride

Novel chitosan/alginate microcapsules simultaneously loaded with copper cations and Trichoderma viride have been prepared and characterized. Information about intermolecular interactions between biopolymers and bioactive agents were obtained by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Encapsulation of Trichoderma viride spores and the presence of copper cations in the same compartment do not inhibit their activity. Dependence of microcapsule loading capacity and efficiency, swelling behavior and releasing depend on both, the size of the microcapsule and bioactive agents. The in vitro copper cations release profile was fitted to Korsmeyer–Peppas empirical model. Fickian diffusion was found to be a rate-controlling mechanism of release from smaller microcapsules, whereas anomalous transport kinetics controlled release from larger microcapsules. Trichoderma viride spores releasing profile exhibited exponential release over the initial lag time. Results obtained opened up perspectives for the future use of chitosan/alginate microcapsules simultaneously loaded with biological and chemical agents in the plant nutrition and protection.

chitosan/alginate microcapsules ; encapsulation ; copper cations ; Trichoderma viride spores ; sustainability

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