ABSTRACT
Many agrochemicals are formulated as emulsifiable concentrates (ECs) which when added to water produce oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions either spontaneously or by gentle agitation. This chapter deals with the common practice of formulation of ECs. This is followed by spontaneous emulsification, which is an important criterion for ECs. The chapter also deals with a specific example of an emulsifiable concentrate that has been investigated using fundamental studies. Lee and Tadros carried out some fundamental studies on a model EC of xylene containing a nonionic and a cationic surfactant. The objective of this work was to study the effect of stability of the resulting emulsion on herbicidal activity of a model compound, namely 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid ester. The effect of surfactant concentration of Synperonic NPE (SNPE) + Ethoduomeen T20 (ET20) (in a 1:1 ratio by weight) on the spontaneity of dispersion on dilution of the xylene EC was studied using the CIPAC test and measuring the dispersed phase mean droplet diameter.
