Re-thinking surfactant strategies for tackling complex spray application

The advancement of drone technology has revolutionized agricultural practices, particularly in the precision application of pesticides and adjuvants. However, this advancement presents unique challenges such as drift, reduced coverage, runoffs and accelerated droplet evaporation before landing on target due to increased spray heights. Surfactants, as key components of adjuvants, play a crucial role in addressing these issues in complex application conditions. This study explores the performance of various surfactants, including non-ionic and anionic types, focusing on their effects on surface tension, drift control, and coverage enhancement.

The findings indicate that the degree of ethoxylation and hydrophobe structure significantly impact the wetting ability and drift control properties of the surfactants, but not on droplet evaporation rate based on the experimental condition. Effective spray coverage is shown to result from a combination of wetting ability, droplet size distribution, and runoff control. Notably, wetting ability proves to be more critical for overall coverage than droplet size. It is also discovered that branched alcohol medium ethoxylated surfactant provides optimum properties to provide efficient drift control, great run-off reduction and enhanced overall coverage.

These insights highlight the importance of optimizing surfactant properties to improve the efficacy of agrochemical applications in challenging conditions, particularly in the context of drone-based technologies.