ABSTRACT
The industry is being asked to protect crops with less pesticide, and expectations are that the public should not see, smell, be exposed to, or be affected by the pesticide in any way. Emerging technologies for formulators to move toward these utopian expectations include new surfactants, new polymers, new processes, and new product forms. Surfactants and polymers will be used to tailor biological efficacy, regulate soil mobility, create new product forms, and combine chemical crop protection chemicals with living biological control agents. Detailed studies of phase behavior revealed striking properties of the surfactants. There was a reversal of the classical trend for longer hydrocarbon chains to lower the surfactant critical micelle concentration. The surfactants lie in flat configuration at the oil-water interface. Tailoring of surfactant structures to produce desired phase behavior, surface mobility, and rheological properties will provide new generations of surfactants to meet the needs of formulators in the future.
