High-Efficiency Control of Gray Mold by the Novel SDHI Fungicide Benzovindiflupyr Combined with a Reasonable Application Approach of Dipping Flower

In this study, a novel succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI) fungicide benzovindiflupyr was found to have strong inhibitory activity against gray mold caused by <i>Botrytis cinerea</i>. The sensitivity of <i>B. cinerea</i> to benzovindiflupyr was determined by testing 103 pathogen isolates with mean values of 2.15 ± 0.19 mg L^–1 and 0.89 ± 0.14 mg L^–1 for mycelial growth and spore germination inhibition, respectively. Furthermore, benzovindiflupyr had excellent long-lasting protective activity. Unfortunately, there were positive correlations between benzovindiflupyr and boscalid (<i>r</i> = 0.3, <i>P</i> = 0.04) and between benzovindiflupyr and isopyrazam (<i>r</i> = 0.31, <i>P</i> = 0.04). In the field, cucumber flowers are susceptible to infection by <i>B. cinerea</i>. Benzovindiflupyr applied at 20 mg L^–1 by dipping flowers could successfully control cucumber gray mold, with the benzovindiflupyr dose of dipping flower application less than 1% of that of spraying application. Benzovindiflupyr combined with dipping flower application showed significant control of gray mold

Single-Crystalline Organic–Inorganic Layered Cobalt Hydroxide Nanofibers: Facile Synthesis, Characterization, and Reversible Water-Induced Structural Conversion

New pink organic–inorganic layered cobalt hydroxide nanofibers intercalated with benzoate ions [Co­(OH)­(C₆H₅COO)·H₂O] have been synthesized by using cobalt nitrate and sodium benzoate as reactants in water with no addition of organic solvent or surfactant. The high-purity nanofibers are single-crystalline in nature and very uniform in size with a diameter of about 100 nm and variable lengths over a wide range from 200 μm down to 2 μm by simply adjusting reactant concentrations. The as-synthesized products are well-characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), fast Fourier transforms (FFT), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectra (EDX), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), elemental analysis (EA), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectra (UV–vis). Our results demonstrate that the structure consists of octahedral cobalt layers and the benzoate anions, which are arranged in a bilayer due to the π–π stacking of small aromatics. The carboxylate groups of benzoate anions are coordinated to Co^II ions in a strong bridging mode, which is the driving force for the anisotropic growth of nanofibers. When NaOH is added during the synthesis, green irregular shaped platelets are obtained, in which the carboxylate groups of benzoate anions are coordinated to the Co^II ions in a unidentate fashion. Interestingly, the nanofibers exhibit a reversible transformation of the coordination geometry of the Co^II ions between octahedral and pseudotetrahedral with a concomitant color change between pink and blue, which involves the loss and reuptake of unusual weakly coordinated water molecules without destroying the structure. This work offers a facile, cost-effective, and green strategy to rationally design and synthesize functional nanomaterials for future applications in catalysis, magnetism, gas storage or separation, and sensing technology