Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Preparations characterized by special physical form – Biocides; animal or insect repellents or attractants
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-19
2001-05-22
Dees, Jose G. (Department: 1616)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Preparations characterized by special physical form
Biocides; animal or insect repellents or attractants
C504S118000, C504S161000, C514S723000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06235300
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to plant protecting compositions containing adjuvant compositions, and in particular, to adjuvant compositions that contain a topped or peaked alcohol ethoxylate or combinations thereof in combination with a conventional alcohol ethoxylate.
Adjuvants are commonly used in plant protecting compositions to facilitate biocidal action or to facilitate or modify characteristics of the biocidal formulations or spray solutions. In order to enhance or modify the chemical and/or physical characteristics of certain pesticides, adjuvants are added to form a mixture for spraying. Since spray application can be critical to the performance of the agricultural chemical, adjuvants are added to reduce application problems such as chemical stability, incompatibility, solubility, suspension, foaming, drift, evaporation, volatilization, phytotoxicity, surface tension, droplet size and coverage. They can, depending on their type, enhance wetting, translocation, spreading, sticking, emulsifying, dispersing and biological activity. Adjuvants include wetting agents, crop oil concentrates, spreaders, stickers, buffering agents, foaming and anti-foaming agents, dispersing agents and drift control agents. Over 200 EPA-registered pesticides have specific recommendations on their labels for adjuvant use. For example, they are recommended to enhance biological activity of the pesticide and to reduce, minimize or eliminate spray application problems as previously noted. There are several different types of adjuvants recommended. To achieve consistent and effective results, the user must first select the desired type of adjuvant and then the appropriate product within that specific type for use with a particular biocide and then use that product at recommended rates. Adjuvants can be added to the biocide formulation (commonly called “ready-to-dilute”) or at the applicator stage when the pesticide formulation is diluted with water or a suitable carrier into a spray tank (commonly called “tank mix”).
Nonionic surfactants have been used as activator adjuvants to facilitate biocide penetration wetting, spreading, dispersing, solubilizing, emulsifying and other surface modifying properties to bring about enhanced biocidal action. These surfactants have also been used as spray-modifier adjuvants to facilitate sticking or spreading of wettable biocidal powders or to modify the drift properties of the biocide. Examples of common nonionic surfactants used as spray adjuvants can be found in
Adjuvants for Herbicides
(Weed Science Society of America 1982), which is incorporated herein by reference.
A common nonionic surfactant used as an adjuvant is an alkyl aryl oxylate such as nonyl ethoxylate phenol, also known as nonoxynol-10. Although nonoxynol-10 is effective, suitable alternatives are continually being sought.
An acceptable alternative is a conventional aliphatic alcohol alkoxylate, commonly called an alcohol alkoxylate, such as alcohol ethoxylates. Alcohol ethoxylates or ethylene oxide adducts are nonionic surfactants having functional properties such as wetting, foaming, emulsifying, and dispersing abilities as well as solubilization and detergent abilities. While the use of alcohol ethoxylates alone as adjuvants has been satisfactory, there is an ongoing effort to make adjuvants with improved herbicidal performance.
Surprisingly, it has been found that the addition of an adjuvant composition containing topped or peaked alcohol alkoxylates, or combinations thereof in combination with conventional alcohol alkoxylates to certain post emergent biocidal mixtures increases the efficacy of these biocides beyond that of recognized standards.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a plant protecting composition comprising an effective amount of agricultural biocide and from about 1% to about 40% of an adjuvant composition comprising a combination of nonionic surfactants selected from the group consisting of topped alcohol alkoxylates and peaked alcohol alkoxylates and combinations thereof with conventional alcohol alkoxylates. Preferably, the topped and peaked alcohol alkoxylates include alcohol ethoxylates, alcohol propoxylates, propoxylated and ethoxylated alcohols and combinations thereof. More preferably, the adjuvant composition includes primary aliphatic alcohol alkoxylates. The plant protecting composition may also contain other surfactants and additives so long as they do not detract from the improved results obtained from the adjuvant of the present invention.
The present invention further includes a method for increasing the efficacy of an agricultural biocide formulation comprising the step of providing an adjuvant comprising a nonionic surfactant selected from the group consisting of topped alcohol alkoxylates and peaked alcohol alkoxylates and combinations thereof with conventional alcohol alkoxylates. In one embodiment, the adjuvant composition and a biocide component are added to a tank mix. In another embodiment, the adjuvant is combined with the biocide component in a ready-to-dilute formulation.
Unexpectedly, it has been found that the adjuvant of the present invention improves the efficacy of certain post emergent agricultural biocide formulations beyond that of recognized standards.
It is noted that, unless otherwise stated, all percentages given in this specification and the appended claims refer to percentages by weight.
These and other advantages and features of the present invention will be better understood upon review of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The present invention relates to a plant protecting composition containing an adjuvant composition comprising a nonionic surfactant component selected from the group consisting of topped alcohol ethoxylates and peaked alcohol ethoxylates and combinations thereof with conventional alcohol alkoxylates.
Alcohol alkoxylates useful in the present invention are those containing an aliphatic hydrocarbon chain and an polyoxyalkylene chain.
The hydrocarbon chain may be derived from an aliphatic alcohol. Examples of alcohol alkoxylates useful as nonionic surfactants usually include those containing a fatty alcohol chain having a carbon length of from about C
8
to about C
20
. The oxyalkylene chain of the compound can have a length of from C
2
to about C
10
. Alcohol alkoxylates useful as nonionic surfactants will preferably contain a oxyalkylene chain consisting mainly of ethylene oxide units (commonly called alcohol ethoxylates), propylene oxide units (commonly called alcohol propoxylates) or a combination thereof (commonly called propoxylated and ethoxylated alcohols).
Alcohol alkoxylates are generally prepared by alkoxylating the aliphatic alcohol with the oxyalkylene in the presence of a catalyst such as potassium oxide or sodium oxide. Examples of alcohol ethoxylates and alcohol propoxylates useful as nonionic surfactants include C
8
-C
18
alcohols with 1-15 moles of ethylene oxide (EO) or propylene oxide (PO) units per mole of alcohol. The distribution of ethoxylation or propoxylation, as the case may be, is quite broad and a sizable amount of free alcohol is left in the product. Common conventional alcohol ethoxylates are listed under the chemical classification of “ethoxylated alcohols” in McCutcheon's
Emulsifiers
&
Detergents
, Annual 1992. Common conventional alcohol propoxylates as well as propoxylated and ethoxylated alcohols are listed under the chemical classification “propoxylated & ethoxylated fatty acids, alcohol or alkyl phenols” in McCutcheon's. The relevant portions of McCutcheon's are incorporated herein by reference.
Certain alcohol alkoxylates useful in the present invention are selected from the group consisting of topped alcohol alkoxylates, peaked alcohol alkoxylates and combinations thereof.
Topped alcohol alkoxylates refer to a distribution containing C
6
or higher carbon chain monofunctional and polyfunctional alcohols. Topped alcohol alkoxylates includ
Amway Corporation
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Dees Jos,e G.
Nichols G. Peter
Pryor Alton
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