Nanopesticides by Design: A Review of Delivery Platforms, Environmental Fate, and Standards for Safe and Sustainable Crop Protection

Nanopesticides are pesticide formulations in which intentionally designed nanoscale carriers shape how an active ingredient (AIng) is deposited, transformed, and released. These systems can improve retention and efficacy, but carrier complexity introduces challenges: nanomaterials can transform in real soil-water matrices, reshaping exposure and risk. These processes are hard to quantify because test protocols and risk assessment frameworks for nanopesticides remain underdeveloped. In this review, we relate design choices across major carrier families-including polymer and lipid particles, nanoemulsions, porous inorganic carriers, and bio-based nanomaterials-to transformations in soil-water systems. We then connect these transformations to ecotoxicological evidence across key non-target taxa. We also address a central "measurement gap" in current risk assessment. Many standard tests were developed for dissolved chemicals. As a result, they do not capture (i) particle stability in realistic matrices, (ii) particle-bound versus dissolved (and ion-released) forms, or (iii) time-resolved exposure. Finally, we propose a Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design roadmap that prioritizes low-hazard materials, predictable degradation, life-cycle thinking, and staged data generation to enable scalable, field-relevant adoption.