ADJUVANTS

In herbicides formulations, adjuvants are chemicals included to improve

their herbicidal effect, sometimes marking difference in satisfactory and
unsatisfactory weed control.

•Adjuvants aid availability of herbicide in the region of plants where it is

needed for best result.

•The main objective of adding adjuvants in herbicides are

To improve herbicide selectivity to the non-target plants.

To provide safer use of herbicide
To prolong shelf life of the concentrates
To reduce drift hazard
Kinds of adjuvants
Surfactants
Stabilizing agents
Solvents
Humicants
Stickers
Activators
Compatibility agents
Drift control agent
Surfactants
• Surfactants act as wetting agent by wetting the waxy leaf surface

• Surfactants act as spreaders by spreading hydrophylic herbicides uniformly

over the foliage

• Surfactants act as penetrants by aiding penetration of herbicide into the

target leaves and stems.

• Surfactants reduce surface tension of water, thereby spreading and wetting

the larger surface area.

• Surfactant molecules posses both lipophilic (apolar) and hydrophilic (polar)

atomic grouping within a single molecular.

• The hydrophilic portions gives surfactants its ionic character e.g. anionic,
cationic and nonionic.

• Some surfactants are amphoteric i.e. their anionic and cationic properties
vary with change in pH of the medium.
• The proportion of size and intensity of hydrophilic (H) and
lipophillic (L) group of a surfactant assigns it a hydrophilic -
lipophilic balance value (=HLB).

• When two groups just balance each other, HLB is a scaled at 10

and good surfactant falls in the range of 7 to 9.

• The HLB of a surfactant determines the relative leaf wetting

property which it imparts to the aqueous herbicide spray liquids
while the ionic character of surfactants determine its compatibility
with a particular herbicide concentrate.

• Cationic surfactants such as Aliquat-4 and Quaternary-O are

compatible with only cationic herbicides like diquat and paraquat.

• With other herbicides either anionic or nonionic surfactants (or

their combination) are used, depending upon the ionic character
of the toxicant.
Examples of surfactants
These are used on the basis of compatibility with
toxicants in herbicides
Non ionic-
• S-145 or Tween-20 (Polyoxyethelene Sorbitan
monoalurate)
• Surfactant WK = Dodecyl ether or polyoxyethelene
glycol
Anionic
• Santomerse - Dodecylbenzene sodium sulphonate
• Vatsolot - Sodiumdiocyl sulpho succinate
Cationic-
• Quaternary-O = Alkylimidaz chloride
• Aliquat - 4 = Laurethrimethyl ammonium chloride
• CTAB = Hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium
• Upon addition of surfactant to an aqueous
solution lower the surface tension of water. Thus
by lowering the interfacial tension between the
carrier water drops and the leaf surface, the
surfactant flattens the spray drops and facilitates
wetting of the foliage with herbicide solution.

• Usually, the optimum surfactant concentration in

a spray liquid is 0.5 to 1.0%.

• Many surfactants enhance herbicide penetration

in plants as such they also act as penetrants.
• Certain surfactants have been found to aid
percolation and leaching behavior of soil active
herbicides such surfactants are known as water
extenders. The common water extender is hydro-
wet (alkylaryl polyoxyethelene ethers +
isopropanal)

• Certain surfactant can be used to reduce the

capillary loss of soil moisture and hold it near the
soil surface by forming an impervious layer on it.
It induces the germination of weeds and activates
the soil applied herbicides against them.
• Emulsion- the suspension of one
liquid as minute globules in another
liquid e.g. oil in water.
• Suspension- a system consisting of
very finely divided solid particles
dispersed in a solid, liquid or gas
medium.
• Stabilizer- Chemical for obtaining stable
emulsion and suspension in the spray tank
individually known as emulsifiers and
dispersents respecively.
• Coupling agent or solvent- Used to solubilise
parent herbicide compound to form either its
soluble concentrate (SL) or Emulsifiable
concentrate (EC).
• Humicants (Hygroscopic Agent)- Chemical
employed to keep a herbicide moist longer on
the leaf surface.
• Stickers - That cause herbicide to adhere or stick to
the sprayed surface.

• Activators - Chemicals with cooperative effect

(synergistic) with herbicides that the resultant
phytotoxicity is more than the effects of the two
working independently.
Coupling agents (=Solvents and co-
solvents)
• Coupling agents are chemicals used to solubilise a
herbicide in concentrated form so as the resulting
chemical is miscible with water.
• Example- 2,4-D is insoluble in water. But it dissolves
in polythene glycol and the resulting compound is
miscible in water.
• Common solvents used for solublizing water
insoluble herbicides are lanolin, carbowax,
benzene, HAN, xylene, petroleum ether, carbon
tetrachloride, methyl chloride, various alcohols,
acetone etc.
• Humicants- Prevent rapid drying of herbicide sprays
on foliage, also called as Hygroscopic agents e.g.
Glycerol.
• Deposit builders (=stickers) = added to herbicides
to hold the toxicant in intimate contact with plant
surface. Examples- Petroleum oils, citowett.
• Compatibility agents- To save the cost of spray
application of fertilizers + pesticides single spray is
done, hence, a compatibility agent like 'compex' is
added so that the properties of either compounds
do not change.
• Activators (=Synergists) –
• Chemicals with cooperative action with herbicides
that the resultant phytotoxicity is more than the
effects of the two working independently.
• Examples- (i) Phytobland oil - are non phytotoxic
paraffin oil with less than 10% aromatic content,
which acts as strong penetrants. The NPO is used at
5-10% by volume of the final spray liquid. Used as
pre plant desiccation and post emergence weed
control in maize and sorghum by mixing in Atrazine-
oil-emulsion. Phytobland oils also activate amitrole,
chloroxuron, fluometron, dinoseb, terbacil. However
NPO, reduces Phytotoxicity of MSMA + urea.
Currently research is underway to develop a
4:1::NPO:surfactant combination as a broad
spectrum activator of herbicides.
Common activators are-
• Isoparaffinic oils – accelerate Atrazin and dinoseb
action
• Ammonia Thiocyanate (NH4 SCN) – used with
Amitrole then known as Amitrd-T
• Trichlorobenzyl chloride (TCBC) – used with CDAA
then known as Randox-T
• Nitrogen fertilizers like urea, Amm. chloride and
Ammonium nitrate have been employed to
enhance 2,4-D phytotoxicity and reduce its rates of
application.
Drift control agents
• Thickening agents - with aqueous system behaves
like gel making spray liquid viscous e.g. Sodium
alginate, hydroxyethyl cellulose and dacagin.
Dacagin is used at 2.8 kg/100 gal spray.