Interactions of Nanopesticides with Environmental Surfaces: A Colloidal Mechanics Perspective across Carrier Classes

Nanopesticides are intentionally released colloidal delivery systems whose environmental fate depends on carrier-mediated interfacial thermodynamics, aggregation kinetics, surface contact mechanics, and active-ingredient release. This review synthesizes nanopesticide interactions with environmental surfaces across five major carrier classes: surfactant micelles, oil-in-water nanoemulsions, polymeric nanoparticles and nanocapsules, inorganic mesoporous and mineral carriers, and cyclodextrin-based complexes and assemblies. For each class, main stabilization mechanisms are linked to governing interaction potentials, including DLVO electrostatic and van der Waals forces, extended-DLVO steric, hydration, hydrophobic, and bridging interactions, and deformation effects associated with carrier softness or anisotropy. Colloidal stability is examined through free-energy landscapes, Fuchs stability ratios, charge regulation, natural organic matter eco-corona formation, and class-specific destabilization pathways such as coalescence, Ostwald ripening, erosion, dissolution, and supramolecular disassembly. Evidence from adsorption, force spectroscopy, and porous-media transport studies indicates that nanoscale chemical heterogeneity and electrokinetic polarity often control retention more strongly than bulk wettability. Transport behavior is interpreted within force-modified advection-diffusion frameworks that include straining, confinement, non-Fickian dispersion, and in situ carrier transformation. Release models are compared across diffusion, relaxation, erosion, host-guest dissociation, and stimulus-responsive gating mechanisms. The review also evaluates computational approaches, including molecular dynamics, dissipative particle dynamics, DLVO modeling, population-balance methods, pore-network simulation, and machine learning. Key gaps include the lack of carrier-resolved fate databases, inadequate single-metric stability descriptors, and the need for standardized characterization under field-relevant chemistries.