NWO XS-Grant granted to Hubert Gojzewski, Mark Hempenius and Frederik Wurm

NWO XS-Grant granted to Hubert Gojzewski, Mark Hempenius and Frederik Wurm

"Lab-to-leave": plant protection by size-designed biodegradable colloids with tuneable surface properties"

Researchers from the Department of Molecules and Materials (Hubert Gojzewski, Frederik Wurm, and Mark Hempenius) were granted the XS project from the NWO Open Competition Domain Science to develop biodegradable cellulose-based colloids for the controlled-release of agricultural actives.

The project will design new biobased and biodegradable colloids as “personalized medicine” for plants and reduce the use of microplastic in agriculture; in today’s plant protection formulations, microparticles based on non-degradable polymers function as capsules for fertilizers and pesticides enabling their controlled release in time.