Plant protecting and regulating compositions – Plant growth regulating compositions
Patent
1995-01-13
1996-04-02
Burn, Brian M.
Plant protecting and regulating compositions
Plant growth regulating compositions
71DIG1, 504206, 504260, 504297, A01N 2530
Patent
active
055040543
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to agricultural, e.g. pesticide, spray mixtures. More particularly, this invention relates to a methods for preparing agricultural spray mixtures characterized by superspreading with low foaming, and for spraying them. Spray mixtures are treated with trisiloxane silicone surfactants which impart superspreading and yet exhibit low foaming, a combination of properties not previously available.
Agricultural spray mixtures can be in the form of solutions, emulsions, suspensions and dispersions, and are used in agriculture for applying agricultural chemicals which can be formed into one of the noted types of mixtures for application to plants, soil and insects. Among the typical agricultural chemicals are pesticides such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, growth regulators, and nutrients and micronutrients to plants and insects. They typically contain surfactants to enhance spreading when applied. When prepared with conventional surfactants, foaming often impedes mixing and creates problems even before the mixture is completely formed. Once formed, agricultural spray mixtures can foam and overflow containment vessels when transported, pumped, or subjected to motion such as vibration. Such spillage can result in loss of the agricultural spray mixture and in the contamination of surfaces by potentially toxic substances as well as losses of time and money.
Conventional trisiloxane surfactants have the ability to impart the property of superspreading to agricultural spray mixtures. By "superspreading" is meant the ability of a drop of the mixture to spread to a diameter at least 9 times as great as a doubly-distilled drop of water on a hydrophobic surface such as the leaf of a plant. However, the conventional use of trisiloxane surfactants for superspreading typically increases mixture foaming relative to the mixture in the absence of the trisiloxane surfactant.
There is a need to prevent a superspreading agricultural spray mixture from foaming or overflowing its containment vessel while not adversely affecting the mixture's spreading capability.
Silicone antifoams typically have such low surface tension values that adding such a defoamer as a separate composition to reduce surface tension doesn't work. Thus, there is a need for a new superspreading spray additive which does not create the foam problem in the first place. Likewise, there is a need for methods for preparing and utilizing a low-foam additive which still has superspread. By the term "low-foaming", it is meant that a silicone exhibits foaming of less than 50 millimeters (mm) initially and less than 15 mm after 5 minutes, using the Ross-Miles technique (ASTM method D 1173-53). Using this technique, 200 milliliters (ml) of a solution to be evaluated for foaming is allowed to fall from a height of 90 centimeters (cm). The maximum initial foam height and the foam height after 5 minutes are recorded.
The methods and compositions of the invention are based on the use of superspreading, but low-foam additives with unique molecular structures for this purpose which permit use alone or with known defoamers. It is an advantage that the low-foam, superspread-promoting additives can be used without conventional defoamers or with decreased amounts of them.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides methods for preparing and applying superspreading agricultural spray mixtures with low foaming, but without adversely affecting spreading of the mixtures when sprayed. The methods comprise adding to an agricultural spray mixture a superspreading, low-foaming surfactant comprising a trisiloxane of the following formula, hereinafter designated Formula I: ##STR1## wherein n has a value from about 2 to 4; y has a value of 3 to 10; z has a value from about 0 to 5; Q is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and alkyl having 1 to 4 carbon atoms, with the provisos that
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the methods of the invention, an agricultural spray mixture is treated with the superspread-promotin
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Burn Brian M.
OSi Specialties Inc.
Reiskind Andrew S.
LandOfFree
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