Premium
Polymeric Drift Control Adjuvants for Agricultural Spraying
Author(s) -
Lewis Reece W.,
Evans Richard A.,
Malic Nino,
Saito Kei,
Cameron Neil R.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
macromolecular chemistry and physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.57
H-Index - 112
eISSN - 1521-3935
pISSN - 1022-1352
DOI - 10.1002/macp.201600139
Subject(s) - nozzle , materials science , degradation (telecommunications) , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , contamination , environmental science , pesticide , agriculture , mechanical engineering , agronomy , engineering , biology , electrical engineering , ecology
The movement of a pesticide or herbicide to an off‐target site during agricultural spraying can cause injury to wildlife, plants and contamination of surface water. This phenomenon is known as spray drift and can be controlled by spraying during favorable environmental conditions, and by using low drift nozzles and drift control adjuvants (DCAs). Polymeric DCAs are the most common type of DCA and function by increasing the droplet size produced during spraying. There are, however, two main drawbacks of polymeric DCAs; they are prone to mechanical degradation during spraying which reduces their performance and they can produce oversized drops which reduces the efficacy of the spray. In this trend article, existing DCA technology is reviewed including the mechanism through which they function. This then provides a platform for the discussion of novel polymeric architectures which have currently not been applied in DCA formulations.